Category: News

Big tech owns most of the cloud

Amazon, Microsoft and Google own more than 76 percent of the enterprise cloud services market in the United States and that anti-competitive state is likely to deteriorate,

IT market research firm Synergy Research Group said American enterprises’ annual spend on cloud infrastructure services was now approaching a significant milestone.

Synergy Research Group chief analyst John Dinsdale said that US spending on cloud services was approaching a $100 billion annual run rate and continues to grow by 30 percent per year, which was unusual for such a large IT market.

Over the past 14 quarters, the US year-over-year growth rate for cloud services has been between 27 percent to 34 percent and the growth is being led by Microsoft, Amazon’s cloud business—Amazon Web Services (AWS)—and Google’s cloud arm Google Cloud, he said.

Redcentric looks strong after snapping up four companies

Managed service provider Redcentric has snapped up four companies in the last two years, which it claims have significantly enhanced its public cloud, security, and consultancy offerings.

Redcentric has acquired Piksel Industry Solutions, 7Elements, 4D Data Centres, and Sungard AS data centre and consulting business assets.

The company said that the multiple deals were driven to meet increased customer demand and a requirement for specific and tailored IT solutions. These include cloud consultancy expertise in the public and hyperscale space, cyber security and expanding its physical presence through the data centre estate and UK portfolio from 4D and Sungard.

5G network security capabilities need to be stepped up

Former rubber boot maker Nokia and research analysts at GlobalData warned that communication service providers (CSPs) worldwide want stronger 5G network security capabilities.

GlobalData, commissioned by Nokia, found that 56 percent of CSPs said they need to substantially improve their cyber capabilities against telecom-specific attacks, while 68 percent said they need to sharpen their defences against ransomware threats.

Surveyed CSPs said they believe 5G Standalone (SA) deployments could increase security vulnerabilities as they disaggregate and open their networks and as industrial enterprises increasingly connect more of their mission-critical assets to their networks.

About three-quarters of the CSPs said their networks had experienced up to six security breaches in the past year, resulting in regulatory liability, fraud and monetary theft, and network services being knocked offline.

The precision medicine market is growing

A new study from Juniper Research found that the total spend on precision medicine will reach $132.3 billion globally by 2027, increasing from only $35.7 billion in 2022.

Juniper Research said that this 270 percent growth resulted from emerging technologies and infrastructure, such as AI, which aids precision medicine by predicting risks for certain diseases.

These technological advancements, combined with the healthcare sector’s need to increase efficiencies in the face of an economic downturn, will encourage healthcare providers to invest further in precision medicine.

Cisco’s Pasalic launches Lifecycle Advantage programme

Cisco has launched its Lifecycle Advantage programme claiming that it provides the tools to help partners deliver higher levels of customer experience.

Cisco director of digital experience, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Zarina Pasalic said that digital was growing in dominance as users change their researching and buying patterns.

“Digital is the experience our customers are having with us. That experience means everything in a subscription world, so if the experience is the product that we’re all going to be selling, we have no choice but to unify around that endeavour”, she said.

The pandemic accelerated these trends and placed “a lot more focus and energy and urgency on digital transformation, and the need to deliver digital-first services.”

She thinks that the last two years have dramatically changed the way customers engage with brands. The lines between B2C [business-to-consumer] and B2B [business-to-business] have become blurred.

“Customers, as well as partners, in B2B expect the same experience that you and I are having in B2C, and they want to communicate in digital-first channels that they prefer. They want speed and they crave empathy.”.

Cisco’s enhanced Lifecycle Advantage to make sure it is responding to partner feedback and providing the tools that are required.

“We’ve got to make things easy for [partners] by providing that end-to-end experience. That is their path to value. It’s tied to their business outcomes”, said Pasalic.

“We really allow our partners to digitally engage with their customers to drive adoption through the lifecycle to upsell and cross-sell opportunities, based on data and analytics, and, of course, to secure renewals. Globally, we have got well over 7,000 partners in the programme, and more people are finally recognising just how innovative and valuable it is.”

 

Cybersecurity companies seeing downturn

There are signs and portents that the cyber security industry  has received a rap on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper and seeing a downturn in business interest.

A new report from Progress Partners, a Boston-based investment bank, claims that venture funds invested in cybersecurity companies declined in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, to $3.3 billion from $5.6 billion, or by 41 percent.

The pullback comes amid uncertain economic times, with market gyrations, high inflation and predictions of a coming recession dominating recent headlines.

Softcat heads to Newcastle

Softcat has a brand spanking new office in Newcastle and is looking for staff to fill it.

The reseller is getting its ninth UK office ready and believes that there is a “large opportunity for growth and recruitment” between its existing bases in Leeds and Glasgow.

Softcat opened its eighth UK office in Birmingham in 2019, and has a Marlow HQ, and offices in London, Leeds, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester and on the South Coast, as well as Dublin.

Arrow adds Oracle cloud to its ArrowSphere

Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) member, Arrow Electronics has added the vendor’s Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services to ArrowSphere.

Oracle’s cloud services are designed to help enterprises run their most demanding workloads securely.

Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business in EMEA Eric Nowak said that his outfit’s relationship with Oracle had lasted 20 years and adding OCI services to ArrowSphere is the next logical step.

Companies confident about sustainability goals

More than 60 percent of executives believe they can achieve their corporate sustainability goals over the next year, according to a recent global survey commissioned by Honeywell International.

Only 16 percent think they’ll do so primarily through technology-driven changes, such as upgrading or replacing existing systems with newer, more efficient or more sustainable technologies.

Most of them say they can hit their short-term goals mainly by modifying or eliminating operational processes or business behaviours.

Emma de Sousa exits Insight

Insight’s EMEA president, Emma de Sousa has announced she will be leaving the building for the last time on 31 December.

After 20 years working for the reseller giant she is leaving to make way for Adrian Gregory, an Atos executive who has previously run its Northern European and APAC business.

De Sousa moved into the EMEA president role just under three years ago, having previously led the UK business.

She seems to have left leaving a statement which was possibly written by a PR AI, as it is difficult to imagine a human saying it.

“It was a very difficult decision to make, but it has been a privilege to be part of this wonderful organisation that continually strives for greatness and lives by its core values of hunger, heart and harmony”, de Sousa apparently said.

Insight CEO Joyce Mullen said: “We have enormous respect for the decision that Emma has made, and we fully support her.

“We thank her for her phenomenal leadership and many years of success leading the UK and our EMEA business. Widely respected both with the industry and Insight, I’d also like to pay tribute to Emma’s enduring commitment to building a high performance, highly inclusive culture at Insight. We have taken this opportunity to look carefully at the market and have found a terrific successor in Adrian.”

 

 

More of Brighton and Hove goes full fibre

Broadband users in Moulsecoomb & Bevendean, and in parts of Hanover & Elm Grove, Woodingdean and East Brighton can access some of the fastest internet services available thanks to CityFibre.

The outfit has completed its network rollout in these areas and homes have been designated ‘ready for service.’ This means residents can choose to connect to the fastest and most reliable internet services in the UK when they go live in their area.

In Brighton & Hove, residents can already sign up to UK launch partner, Vodafone, TalkTalk, Giganet, IDnet, Yayzi, Air Broadband, NoOne and Octaplus with other providers expected to join the network soon.

Nutanix lets out three new cloud bundles

Nutanix has released new cloud bundles as part of its channel initiative for the commercial market segment.

The bundles let customers standardise on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) while offering channel partners streamlined options to integrate with their value propositions and grow their market share.

Nutanix has been making a big thing of cloud computing and Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) technologies.  It plans that when HCI is coupled with intelligent software that replace legacy infrastructure previously consisting of separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays.

Revature starts UK operations

US Tech talent outfit Revature has launched operations in the United Kingdom.

The outfit said that it will us its talent development programme to train a diverse pool of qualified candidates in high-demand technology disciplines, providing a pathway to future-proof careers in technology and developing talent pipelines for organisations across the UK.

There were over two million UK job vacancies in tech last year despite a strong financial incentive to join the tech workforce.

Nokia releases Core SaaS for 5G

The former maker of rubber boots, Nokia, launched Core SaaS for 5G, which it claims will provide communication service providers and enterprises with a super-fast software model for their networks.

Nokia Core SaaS is supposed to replace deploying customised software that runs on private infrastructure. It is based around Nokia’s Core software, including 5G Packet Core, on-demand through a more cost-effective subscription service that eliminates upfront capital expenditure and avoids the need to perform on-site software maintenance and updates.

Nokia Core SaaS begins with 5G Core services  and trials are expected to commence shortly, and commercial availability is expected in the first half of 2023.

VMware votes to approve Broadcom takeover

VMware shareholders voted to approve the pending merger with Broadcom.

Stockholders decided the merger’s fate and the compensation that Broadcom has arranged for VMware executives. It was pretty much a rubber stamp type meeting with the majority shareholder Michael Dell already pledging his 40-per cent ownership stake to voting in favour.

In all, 352.6 million shares were cast in favour of being acquired by Broadcom — 99.61 percent of the total vote — while 681,000 shares were cast in opposition and 687,000 shares were listed as having abstained.

VMware said there are 424.4 million shares of the company’s common stock that were eligible to cast votes. Of those, 353.9 million voted.

What seems to have got shareholders cross was the compensation for VMware executives, particularly the $169.4 million golden parachute that Broadcom had arranged for VMware’s top five executives, once the deal closes.

The owners of more than 4.2 million shares opposed the pay — or 1.2 percent of the total votes cast — while 348.2 million shares voted to approve the golden parachute.