Skills shortages and integration stuff up digital transformation

Posted on December 6, 2018 by - News

The Cloud Industry Forum and BT have woken up to the fact that skills shortages and migration and integration issues are causing problems for firms keen on digital transformation.

According to the pair’s study, three quarters either have or are thinking about digital transformation strategy in place or are rolling one out.

When customers talked about hurdles, barriers and problems the main one was around skill shortages with 59 percent thought they lacked the staff with integration and migration skills,

76 percent of buyers want hardware on a subscription

Posted on December 6, 2018 by - News

The idea of hardware as a service has [surely Haas, Ed.] gained traction among the punters, according to Panasonic.

Panasonic has been adding up some numbers and worked out that more than  76 percent of technology buyers were keen to buy hardware on a subscription basis, with cost their crucial consideration.

The outfit found that increasing number of customers have heard about the option and wanted to use it for laptops, tablets and handhelds. The attraction of the

JASK gets Exclusive

Posted on December 6, 2018 by - News

Exclusive has been appointed by JASK, the provider of the industry’s Autonomous Security Operations Center (ASOC) platform, to accelerate the market penetration of its disruptive and innovative technologies around the world.

Exclusive will manage the distribution of JASK’s ASOC Platform as part of a worldwide agreement, with the first wave of territories onboarding in Benelux, the Nordics and the USA, with more countries expected to be rolled out shortly. The distribution

Silver Peak appoints three new executives

Posted on December 5, 2018 by - Moving People, News

Global SD-WAN contender Silver Peak announced three new senior executive appointments as part of its future plans.

The new appointments include Ken Laversin, Chief Revenue Officer, Kathleen Swift, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Rick Valentine, Chief Customer Officer.

A company spokesperson said the executive appointments, which follow a series of regional and channel leadership appointments, will enable Silver Peak to

Buy IT buys Trojan Electronics.

Posted on December 5, 2018 by - News

Channel outfit Buy IT has bought the refurbishing company Trojan Electronics.

It acquired Trojan in a pre-pack deal after the organisation entered administration in November, with Glynne saying that all members of staff have been kept on and around £3 million of debt has been paid.

Buy IT said that a large chunk of its business come from refurbishing and selling products that suppliers have had returned to them by customers.

Avi Networks announces Universal Service Mesh

Posted on December 5, 2018 by - Products

Avi Networks today announced Universal Service Mesh, adding what it claims are two major enhancements to the Avi Vantage Platform as part of a cunning plan to corner a $12 billion market for application services.

Avi is gets enhanced, full-featured, ingress and gateway services to Istio to facilitate secure connectivity for Kubernetes applications across multiple clusters, regions, or clouds. These include L4-L7 traffic management, security including WAF, and observability.

It is also integrating Istio within its Avi Controller

Digital secretary talks up May’s Brexit deal

Posted on December 4, 2018 by - News

Desperate to prove that Theresa May’s Brexit deal is not the lame duck that the pundits claim, DCMS Secretary of State Jeremy Wright has claimed it will “provide the UK’s booming £130 billion digital sector with the certainty it needs to continue to thrive”.

The digital and tech industries employ more than 2.1 million people across the UK, and Wright says that the continuation of free-flowing data is vital to “both our economy and security”.

King of Servers rebrands to Evaris

Posted on December 4, 2018 by - News

King of Servers has rebranded to Evaris after acquiring Manchester-based MSP Think4 IT.

The newly formed firm will offer a range of services including cloud management and disaster recovery, as well as expertise in servers, storage and networking.

Evaris CEO Mike Cohen said: “The acquisition is a key strategic step to ensure customers continue to benefit from the excellent knowledge and service already offered by King of Servers and

Symantec COO quits on “difficult day”

Posted on December 3, 2018 by - News

Symantec COO and president Michael Fey in what he called a “difficult day” on his social media account.

“Today is an exciting and difficult day. As I have chosen to embark on the next stage of my career”,  Fey wrote in a post on his LinkedIn page. “While this was a difficult decision to leave this awesome team, I am very excited about the future.”

As part of Fey’s separation agreement with Symantec signed Wednesday, he has agreed to forgo severance benefits, unvested equity awards, and cash bonus payments.

Ismail Mitha joins Jabra North EMEA Channel team

Posted on December 3, 2018 by - Moving People, News

Sound outfit Jabra has appointed Ismail Mitha to its North EMEA Channel team. Mitha will be field-based, but will report into Jabra’s UK HQ in Langley, Berkshire.

This news follows a string of new hires and promotions as Jabra has seen increased demand and strong financial growth across the organisation. Mitha joins as Telco Account Manager and will utilise his vast experience in the industry to build upon the strong foundations laid by his predecessor, Lee Davis, who was recently appointed Enterprise Account Manager at Jabra.

Ismail Mitha worked for over 10 years at British Telecom

HP revenue beats estimates

Posted on December 3, 2018 by - News

The maker of expensive printer ink, HP, reported a  quarterly revenue that thrashed analysts’ estimates,  thanks to growth in its systems business that sells notebooks and desktops and the acquisition of Samsung’s printer business.

The personal systems business, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of HP  total revenue, rose 11 percent to $10.06 billion, beating analysts’ average estimate of $9.78 billion.

The company had the second position in worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter with a 22.8 percent market share, down from 23.9 percent in the preceding quarter, according to research firm International

Chatbots and personalisation could be the next big thing

Posted on November 30, 2018 by - News

New research from 2Checkout reveals an increased interest among businesses in personalisation and chatbots

2Checkout has been looking into what it thinks will be next year’s eCommerce Trends based on a survey of 1,000 companies across the world.

Customer experience and technology are top concerns for merchants, and many are prioritising international markets for their next expansion, meaning they need to consider how customers in

SD-WAN technology could be great for the channel

Posted on November 30, 2018 by - News

SD-WAN technology could be an excellent channel opportunity according to, SVP international, Barracuda Networks’ Chris Ross.

Ross said his outfit had been researching networking technology for the cloud – specifically, software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN).

While speaking to end-users, Barracuda found some interesting insights into the EMEA channel community. There seems to be an increasing opportunity, as businesses in EMEA overwhelmingly turn to SD-WAN, despite a lack of education and skill.

Tech Data reports revenue boost

Posted on November 30, 2018 by - News

Tech Data has reported revenue increases across all its geographic regions.

The company said that for the last three-quarters sales climbed 11 percent year on year to $9.3 billion while operating income was up 85 percent to $146.9 million.

Europe made up over half of the overall sales (53 percent) at $4.9 billion.

Tech Data CEO Rich Hume said: “I am pleased to