Microsoft snaps up Cloudyn

Posted on July 3, 2017 by - News

lightning-cloudSoftware King of the World, with shares in the moon and parts of Uranus, has confirmed it is writing a cheque for Israeli  cloud management company Cloudyn.

Writing in his bog, Microsoft director of product management Jeremy Winter confirmed the deal which was leaked to the Israeli press in April, but never confirmed.

The move appears to have involved Infosys which flogged off its entire investment in Cloudyn for a total consideration of approximately  $4,400,000.

Six-year-old Cloudyn offers software that businesses can use to monitor their cloud computing resources from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google. It also monitors clouds based on OpenStack technology.

In his post, Miller cited an unnamed Fortune 500 company that saw a 286 percent  return on investment using Cloudyn’s technology to boost efficiency.

He said that Cloudyn’s technology would become part of Microsoft’s lineup.  Cloudyn CEO Sharon Wagner said the focus on multi-cloud management would continue. That makes sense given that many Fortune 500 companies want to use more than one cloud provider, and in this arena, Microsoft is playing catch-up to the Amazon Web Services cloud juggernaut. It is in Microsoft’s best interest to preach multi-cloud at this point.

Cloudyn raised just over $20 million from investors including Carmel Ventures, Titanium Investments and RDSeed.

Certent signs deal with IBM

Posted on July 3, 2017 by - News

satanic pactCertent has signed a definitive agreement with IBM to acquire the IBM Cognos Disclosure Management (CDM), IBM Cognos Disclosure Management on Cloud (CDM on Cloud), IBM Cognos Financial Statement Reporting (FSR), and IBM Clarity 7 products.

IBM will continue to be a partner of Certent’s under a reseller agreement. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The IBM suite of products offers on-premise and cloud platforms for multi-author reports to financial and disclosure reporting teams in North America, APAC and Europe, which give organisations advanced capabilities to handle regulatory requirements involving US GAAP and XBRL, IFRS and European Banking Authority and insurance industry frameworks.

Hundreds of customers rely on these products to address complexities surrounding regulatory reporting mandates such as Solvency II, COREP and FINREP.

Certent CEO Michael Boese said: “This acquisition supports our strategy to be the leading global provider of financial reporting and compliance software and services.It will expand our product suite, accelerate our product roadmap and expand our international footprint.”

Certent VP Don Hill said that customers, partners and employees will all see tremendous benefits from this union.

“We have been providing Disclosure Management services as an IBM partner since 2013. In addition to the planned product innovations associated with this deal, we are excited to bring the same world class services to our expanded customer base around the world.”

 

Living on the mobile edge is more interesting

Posted on July 3, 2017 by - News

b5Beancounters at Transparency Market Research have added up some numbers and reached the conclusion that the global mobile edge computing (MEC) market is a dynamic and highly competitive one, which is making gigantic strides.

In a report, the analysts said that players operating in the market are constantly looking to develop more effective solutions in response to the different requirement of end-use companies.

They are investing heavily in cutting-edge technologies to stay ahead.

The report said that the many titans in the field were coming up with highly advanced hardware and software solutions that will help them steal a march over their competitors.

The top names in global mobile edge computing (MEC) market are IBM, Huawei, IDT, Nokia, PeerApp, Intel, Juniper, ADLINK, Saguna, Vasona Networks, ZTE and SpiderCloud Wireless.

As per a report by Transparency Market Research, the global mobile edge computing (MEC) market will register 51.0 per cent CAGR between 2017 and 2025 to become worth $4228.3 million by 2025 from $73.8 million in 2016.

Depending upon the part, the global mobile edge computing (MEC) market can be segmented into hardware, software, and service. Of them, the hardware segment accounted for a mammoth 80 percent share in the market in 2016.

The report claims this is because the entire mobile edge computing architecture is comprised of different hardware – servers, processors, routers, and switches. The segment is predicted to clock maximum growth in the forecast period.

Geographically, the key segments in the global mobile edge computing (MEC) market are North America, South America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa.

Europe is a major market and accounted for a leading share of about 43.5 percent in 2016. The primary reason for the region’s dominant position is the swift uptake of mobile edge computing on account of increasing monthly data usage and the rising adoption of devices having Internet of Things (IoT).

There are quite a few drivers that are bringing about phenomenal growth in the global mobile edge (MEC) computing market, the report said. One of them is the low latency networks, especially for media and entertainment purposes.

“MEC has the capability to hasten the distribution of media services by distributing content straight from the base station, which considerably improves the consumer experience in an aspect of high data traffic growth. This technology allows administrators to adapt traffic to the dominant radio circumstances, improve network efficiency and enhance service quality,” the report said.

Further, the growing number of IoT devices, automated cars, etc. are also supporting the growth of the mobile edge computing market. Moreover, the mobile edge computing market is predicted to see high demand worldwide owing to its growing application in different applications due to its low latency, high content delivery, and high quality of experience over the forecast period.

US Ensono snaps up Inframon

Posted on July 3, 2017 by - News

 

Finding-Nemo-Shark-Wallpaper-HDEnsono, the US outfit which bought Attenda last September, has grabbed another UK managed services provider – Inframon.

Reading-based Inframon is an Azure-based operation which specialises in moving large Microsoft-centric organisations to the cloud.

Ensono bought Attenda nine months ago which is a UK managed services and cloud services provider specialising in business-critical applications. It said that Inframon would bolster its AWS and Azure prowess.

Ensono CEO Jeff VonDeylen said that the investment further strengthens our managed cloud offerings.

“By coupling Ensono’s expertise in managing mission-critical operations and Inframon’s extensive knowledge and leadership in Azure managed service offerings, we continue to position ourselves as the best partner to help our clients optimise their IT infrastructures.”

Inframon will keep its name, and Inframon’s Sean Roberts will assume the role of general manager, Microsoft Cloud Services, with Gordon McKenna becoming CTO, Microsoft Cloud Services, reporting into Brian Klingbeil, Ensono’s COO, Ensono said.

 

 

StayinFront gets 20:20

Posted on July 3, 2017 by - News

spec_saversStayinFront announced today it had acquired UK-based analytics provider 20:20 Retail Data Insight a move to boost its sales revenues.

The company and current staff will be integrated with StayinFront’s global analytics and reporting team and will operate from Lincoln, UK.

20:20 has over 15 years experience of using a data-informed approach to direct field sales actions.

The company works with major grocers and retailers in the UK, Europe and North America and uses EPoS data to create relevant insights for in-field sales representatives, as well as their managers.

These insights are converted to in-store activities which maximise sales and promotion effectiveness.

StayinFront is based in the US and is a provider of mobile cloud-based field force automation solutions for the consumer goods industry. It was voted a Top Ten Technology Provider in the 2017 CGT Readers’ Choice Survey and ranked Best-In-Class in the most recent POI Retail Execution Vendor Panorama. Customers in over 50 countries, ranging from Fortune 100 companies and distributors to niche manufacturers and contract sales organisations, have deployed StayinFront’s solutions to standardise best practices, improve visibility and increase sales force effectiveness.

StayinFront CEO Thomas Buckley said there was a real opportunity to deliver advanced capabilities and guided selling via more meaningful store and route-level scorecards to our customers across the globe.

“We also see great potential in integrating analytic technologies with the digital merchandising and image recognition initiatives we have road mapped. In the end, the combination fits squarely within our goal of allowing our clients to Do More, Know More and Sell More.”

SAS talks of pushing and pulling in the data analytics market

Posted on June 30, 2017 by - News

 

cache_a1d87f158cdc877afe8b4214aec625e2SAS, which is Official Analytics Partner of British Rowing as a metaphor for what it has to do in the new markets, has been showing how data analytics have become crucial in sports..

It roped in double Olympic champion Helen Glover to row in an indoor practice tank rigged with sensors on the oars and footplates to show that a rower has to push just as much as they pulled.

Using the SAS collected and analysed data to visually illustrate each stroke and show there is always an opportunity to improve performance, even at the elite level, by highlighting inconsistencies, strengths and weaknesses.

Data collection and analytics are now being adopted across many different organisations, and sport has seen a considerable increase in use of data. It is no longer enough to simply record the speed or angle of a boat in the water, but a huge array of different data types are available to SAS to help allow British Rowing athletes to perform at their best and give them the best chance to succeed at international level.

For rowers benefiting from enhanced data analysis, the development has been vital in ensuring peak performance is achieved.

Speaking at an event hosted by SAS, Helen Glover said: “For me, data analytics was fundamental to my build-up to Rio. Having that information about myself, and knowing that I was going to be my best self on the start line was crucial.”

Previous Henley Royal Regatta winner and double Olympic Champion, Glover said that data analytics was crucial as  rowers up and down the country prepare for this year’s regatta.

Speaking about the types of data collected, Steve Ludlow, Principal Technology Consultant at SAS UK & Ireland, said: “British Rowing collects all sorts of data that we can help analyse. We can look at data from the sensors on the boat, the biomechanical data including the angles and forces working on the boat, temperature data, and even medical data.”

To put the sheer amount of data collected into perspective, Ludlow described how a new piece of data is collected “every two one thousandths of a second, so if you are doing a session of 24km, then you are collecting gigabytes worth of data [in a single session]”.

 

Redcentric no longer ginger about figures

Posted on June 30, 2017 by - News

8c06ff2279ed6947326598bb02e2e22dRedcentric has managed to put its “challenging year” behind it after hitting revised financial targets with revenue of over £100 million

The MSP was the subject of audits and investigations after the discovery of accounting errors revealed it had overstated net assets and profit by over £20 million.

A statement was released last month claiming Redcentric had however managed to hit its trading targets, and a further statement to the London Stock Exchange today revealed revenue of £104.6 million for the  year ending 2017.

Among this revenue was £90 million from clients who “remained loyal”, while key wins have brought in contracts worth over £19.4 million from the new clients.

Chris Cole, chairman of Redcentric, said that during this challenging period for the company but clients and employees have remained loyal and focused, thus ensuring the day-to-day externally facing business operations have continued satisfactorily.

The financial structure and personnel have been reinforced and changed to provide resilient and accurate reporting. The company was looking forward to the business operating normally and trading well in markets that provide opportunities for growth.

Redcentric has appointed a new chief financial officer and new auditors have been in place since last month. It has also implemented more robust internal controls and is in the process of scrapping multiple legacy back-office systems for a new Microsoft platform.

Cloud giants need channel for next phase

Posted on June 30, 2017 by - News

ae75610647df615b38555f1bc5ac6896Market analyst outfit Canalys says that the cloud giants such as AWS, Microsoft and Google are embracing the channel as they look to capitalise on the “next phase” of cloud adoption.

AWS, Microsoft and Google grew their cloud infrastructure revenues by 43 percent, 93 percent and 74 percent respectively in Q1, year on year, as the overall market rose by 42 percent to $11.4 billion, Canalys said.

But the big three have worked out that building an indirect business will be the only way to maintain that order of growth,

Canalys principal analyst Matthew Ball said that the next phase of cloud adoption means that they are looking at corporate and mid-market accounts, and for that they need greater reach and scale, and to do that they need the channel.

Big cloud providers, AWS and Google have not come from an enterprise IT background so they are starting to mature their partner programmes and channel engagements.

They are looking to focus on that more because they recognise that the channel has those relationships with customers.

Canalys thinks the channel will be a part of their go-to-market strategies, especially if they want to maintain their high levels of growth each quarter and year.

Canalys pegged AWS’ Q1 cloud infrastructure sales at over $3.5 billion but the market leader’s success need not be at the cost of the channel, said Ball, who argued that the rise of cloud has in some cases expanded the role played by resellers.

Ball said that the channel has made good business selling datacentre infrastructure in the past, and will do so.

Cloud is another choice for customers in terms of how they operate their IT environments and, for sure, it’s a concern for channel partners. Some partners have been affected by cloud and others changing their business model to develop consultancy or professional services to help their customers define a cloud environment.

Diebold Nixdorf settles antitrust and launches in UK

Posted on June 30, 2017 by - News

diebold-nixdorf-officeConnected commerce outfit Diebold Nixdorf has launched its fully integrated brand and direct presence in the UK and Ireland after ending a spat with antitrust regulators.

The company has agreed to sell its legacy Diebold business in the United Kingdom to Cennox Group, fulfilling the requirements previously set forth by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The acquisition by Cennox is expected to close today. Upon closing, the legacy, independent Wincor Nixdorf UK and Ireland business will be completely integrated into the global Diebold Nixdorf operations and brand. This includes the company’s retail business, which was not subject to CMA review.

Diebold Nixdorf’s Andy Mat said his team in the UK and Ireland, totalled 900 and was looking forward to broadening relationships and providing innovation for its customers.

“We are very pleased to put this final antitrust requirement of our business combination behind us — and excited to fully move forward in the UK and Ireland as Diebold Nixdorf.”

Cennox is a global provider of banking services and the UK’s largest independent ATM service business. It provides various self-service-related solutions and support services, patented security products and branch transformation capabilities, primarily to the financial industry but also retail and commercial industries.

Under the sale agreement, all staff from the legacy Diebold operation serving U.K. customers, totaling 67 employees, will become part of Cennox. The acquisition will allow Cennox to exclusively sell legacy Diebold hardware, services and Phoenix software in the UK and Ireland. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Earlier this year, the CMA published its official findings in connection with the business combination of Diebold, Incorporated and Wincor Nixdorf AG, and concluded that a structural remedy was required to ensure effective competition in the UK. Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf brands and operations had remained separate and distinct while awaiting the CMA review.

HPE will merge acquisitions initiatives by November

Posted on June 30, 2017 by - News

HPEHPE has confirmed it will merge its recent acquisitions’ channel initiatives into its own Partner Ready Programme on 1 November.

Over the last year HPE has been buying like a mad thing, and snapped up Simplivity, Nimble Storage, SGI, Cloud Cruiser and Niara. These outfits conducted the majority of their business through the channel prior to acquisition and HPE said that the goal was to get them all working under the Partner Ready Programme.

Speaking to the assorted throngs at HPE’s Global Partner Summit yesterday, Jesse Chavez, VP of worldwide channel strategy and operations, said by 1 November Nimble, Cloud Cruiser and Simplivity will be fully migrated to the HPE Partner Ready Program.

Niara and SGI have already nearly moved to Partner Ready. Niara will be available on Partner Ready from August, while SGI is already underway, with products starting to appear in July.

Chavez said that SGI was a special case as it did not do much of its business through the channel. Other acquisitions did all their business through the channel, he said, SGI’s rate only managed about a fifth. It was something that HPE wanted to change.

There will also be no room for parallel partner programmes with these new acquisitions, which contrasts with the company’s strategy when it bought Aruba Networks two years ago.

Amazon’s cloud growth is unlikely anything else seen

Posted on June 29, 2017 by - News

amazonsAmazon Web Services’ (AWS) growth is unlike anything seen in the tech sector before.

UK managing director Gavin Jackson talking to the assorted throngs and riff-raff at the AWS Summit in London, said the cloud provider’s $14 billion revenue run rate and 43 percent year-on-year growth for the first quarter of 2017.

“It’s unprecedented for a company which is just 11 and a half years old… unparalleled as a paradigm from any other technology shift we’ve ever seen in history, so it’s a pretty good indicator that cloud is the new normal.”

Aside from measuring AWS’ revenue, Jackson pointed to the tech firms using AWS’ cloud architecture, claiming that eight of the top 10 tech growth companies are using its platform.

“This should be a really clear indicator as to how people are thinking about their investments in technology,” he said, “but also as a clear indicator as to how people are thinking about investments in talent and skills, with the centre of gravity really shifting up towards these cloud companies.”

Four software service fraudsters arrested

Posted on June 29, 2017 by - News

20120620-162002Software King over all the World, including parts of the moon,  Microsoft has been helping the City of London Police with their inquiries and caused the arrest of four people suspected of committing software service fraud.

A statement published by Action Fraud confirmed that arrests were made in Woking and South Shields yesterday, following a two-year investigation.

Hugh Milward, director of legal affairs at Microsoft, said: “The names of reputable companies like Microsoft are often used by criminals to lull victims into a false sense of security.

“That’s why we partnered with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to track these people down and bring them to justice. It’s a collaboration which can cohesively combat and investigate computer service fraud. Today’s arrests are just the start.”

Software service fraud occurs when victims receive a call from someone claiming to be a software support expert, often from companies like Microsoft, which purport to have uncovered a fault on their machine.

The fraudster then seeks to gain access to the victim’s machine, allowing them to install malicious software.

Having gained access, there is also the possiblity of the fraudster obtaining credentials to log into bank accounts.

Action Fraud said that in the 2016/17 financial year over 34,000 software fraud claims were reported, with losses estimated to be over £20 million.

Commander Dave Clark of City of London Police said: “These arrests are just the beginning of our work, making the best use of specialist skills and expertise from Microsoft, local police forces and international partners to tackle a crime that often targets the most vulnerable in our society.”

Microsoft and City of London Police worked with other affected firms, including BT and TalkTalk, to assess tens of thousands of reports filed with Action Fraud.

Most of the calls originated from India.

Magento sees cloudy growth

Posted on June 29, 2017 by - News

image_zps7ea521eeCloud digital commerce outfit, Magento, said that it was seeing significant growth and adoption of its next generation cloud platform and solutions across Europe.

The outfit had a record-breaking year and significant growth in its flagship platform with 42 percent year over year growth in new licence revenues in Europe.

Magento CEO Mark Lavelle said that merchants must anticipate and deliver exceptional customer experiences that are true to their brand, and distinguish themselves from the competition.

“The Magento Commerce Cloud offers merchants the agility they need to innovate and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving and competitive environment,” he said. “Over the past year, we’ve seen increased demand and accelerated adoption of our commerce suite across B2B and B2C merchants in the region, and more than 60 percent of our new customer deals are with our cloud-based digital platform.”

Magento increased its presence in the UK and across Europe, Middle East and Africa regions with dedicated sales, marketing, customer support and development personnel.

Lavelle said that Magento is actively growing strategic partnerships in the EMEA region with technology vendors such as Amazon Pay, Vertex and Nosto, to name a few. These local partnerships with the added local staff have expanded Magento’s footprint and has contributed to Magento’s growth in the European market.

Magento also announced the rebranding of its commerce suite, and will now be called the Magento Cloud, to better align to customer needs and reflect the growing adoption of its technology platform.

The company is simplifying the names of its flagship digital platform and order management products to Magento Commerce (formerly Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition and Magento Enterprise Edition) and Magento Order Management (formerly Magento Commerce Order Management). Magento is also recognizing the contributing of its global ecosystem beyond a single product and renaming Magento Community Edition to Magento Open Source.

Magento was recently named a leader by Gartner in the April 2017 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce.

“More than $1 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud during the next five years. This will make cloud computing one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending since the early days of the digital age.

 

Save the Games industry

Posted on June 29, 2017 by - News

gamestop-inside-930x618TIGA, the network for games developers and digital publishers and the trade association representing the video games industry, today published its Brexit and Beyond: Priorities for the UK Video Games Industry report.

TIGA’s report sets out a policy agenda for Government, Parliament and policy makers to consider as the UK negotiates its departure from the European Union.

Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, said that TIGA’s Brexit and Beyond: Priorities for the UK Video Games Industry, sets out a cogent, coherent and constructive agenda for ensuring the UK games sector is a leading player in an industry that is predicted to be worth approximately $100 billion by 2018.

“If the UK creates a favourable tax environment with an enhanced Games Tax Relief, improves access to finance and enables studios to access talent, then the UK video games industry will both survive and thrive in a post-Brexit world.”

The UK video games industry already contributes £1.2 billion to UK GDP. This contribution will increase with the right policy environment in place.

TIGA’s Brexit: Priorities for the UK Video Games Industry, said that if the government wants to keep things working it needs to create a favourable tax environment to encourage businesses to invest in the UK.

The Government should consider increasing the rate of Video Games Tax Relief from 25 to 27.5 or 30 percent and introduce a Video Games Investment Fund to provide pound for pound match funding up to a maximum of £200,000 to enable more studios to grow.

It would also be a good idea to maintain the UK Games Fund so that start-ups can access funding for prototypes.

The report called on the government to increase the amount of money that a company can raise via SEIS investment from £150,000 to £200,000 and ensure that EU workers already working in the UK are protected so that they can continue to work in the UK with the confidence that they are not going to be asked to leave the UK in the future.

The government needs to and clarify the status of EU workers who enter the UK following the EU referendum and prior to the UK’s exit from the EU. T

Meanwhile the government needs to negotiate a trade deal with the EU that avoids quotas, tariffs and other barriers to trade to maintain free trade in video games, negotiate trade deals with growing economies, examine the potential for incentivising more businesses to export through the tax system.

The UK Government should consider introducing arrangements for the conversion or extension of a EU trademark or registered community design to cover the UK.

It also needs to adopt and adhere to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to ensure that companies based in the UK and doing business in the EU can continue to smoothly transfer information and data.

 

Adoddle finds cloud a doddle

Posted on June 29, 2017 by - News

grandpa_simpson_yelling_at_cloudA site which makes the Adoddle Cloud CDE, has just scored Imtech as a customer.

Technical service provider, Imtech said that digitisation and cloud software are for the future success of its business.

With the explosion of Big Data, IT Security, IT Costs, Data accessibility, and an initiative to reduce one’s carbon footprint, many companies like Imtech have made the shift towards an Information Management Systems within a digital Common Data Environment.

Imtech is one of the largest managed technical service providers in the UK and Ireland.

Imtech wanted a secure, PAS1192 compliant, cloud platform that had the ability to easily share documents, replace site servers, and manage tendering applications.

Asite’s Adoddle simplified Imtech’s internal tendering processes by providing a centred system that can structure responses and offer a transparent and fare source of information.

An Imetch spokesman said that the platform offers the capability of reducing administration procedures.

Imtech has also  benefited from the use of Adoddle’s QR coding feature that allows construction companies to fill the gap between the physical and digital world. QR codes are printed on site drawings and can be scanned with any smartphone or tablet to ensure that the document used, is the latest and correct version.

Imtech has now signed an Enterprise agreement with Asite to use Adoddle in all of its future projects.