CDW transacted the most sales of any reseller on the G-Cloud framework last year according to government released figures
The figures, published by Crown Commercial Service (CCS), reveal that CDW raked in sales of £29.3 million via G-Cloud, although the vast majority of this came from one huge £25.7 million deal.
Software King of the World Microsoft has more than 60 percent of its commercial business on the cloud.
Partner boss Joe Macri told the assembled throngs at the outfit’s London Partner Executive Summit that Vole was pushing cloud-first business models with some success.
Macri said that over half of Microsoft’s UK partners have now made cloud solutions the primary focus of their businesses.
Amazon is the latest technology titan to claim the crown of world’s most valuable public company – the outfit is worth $797 billion and beats surpasses Microsoft with $784 billion in value.
Apple, which had been part of a close three-way race for the seat, is now down to about $702 billion in market value after plunging last week on the news of its weak iPhone sales. Google parent company Alphabet has surpassed Apple with a market value of about $748 billion.
The UK government is pushing a cloudy vision of the future based around Microsoft’s Office 365.
The Microsoft app is being touted as a way to escape the clutches of the government’s Public Services Network, the ancient internal intranet service.
Microsoft UK CEO Cindy Rose was awarded an OBE for her services to UK technology over the holiday break.
Rose was appointed Microsoft UK CEO & Area Vice President in July, 2016. In this role, she is responsible for all of Microsoft’s product, service and support offerings across the United Kingdom, continuing the company’s transformation into the leading productivity and platform company for the mobile-first, cloud-first era.
Software King of the World Microsoft will launch two Microsoft 365 subscription security bundles next month.
The first bundle, which will cost $12 for each seat is the Identity and Threat Management Protection package will contain security offerings across Windows 10 and enterprise mobility, including Microsoft Threat Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), Defender ATP and Office 365 ATP.
Glasswall has obtained Microsoft’s Gold ISV Co-Sell status which means its sales teams will work with Vole on targeted customer opportunities and related account planning activities, in the commercial and government, defence and security sectors.
Glasswall has developed a Deep-File Inspection, Remediation and Sanitisation Technology – d-FIRST – which prevents malware and understanding of organisational risk from file-borne cyber-attacks. It reverses the traditional signature-based security approach by validating ‘known good’ elements of a file which are finite and bounded, regenerating a new identical and safe copy, typically in fractions of a second.
Software king of the world Microsoft has thrown its considerable weight behind Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Writing in her bog, Microsoft’s UK managing director Cindy Rose said the deal was in Vole’s interest because it allowed the “free flow” of data in and out of the UK.
“Many of our customers and partners operate businesses that rely on Microsoft’s cloud computing services. These businesses require the frictionless flow of data across borders in order to operate effectively. We have consistently advocated to the government the need to ensure this data flow continues post-Brexit.”
Microsoft’s price increases have gone down like month old milk left at the back of a fridge with public sector customers and the channel being blamed for not explaining them well enough.
Vole made changes to its pricing structure from the start of last month, with the aim of simplifying things. That meant that there would be an introduction of single prices in some areas and the removal of complicated discount structures in others.
Cloud data management company, Rubrik launched its Rubrik Accelerator for Microsoft Azure to offer its enterprise customers what it describes as a “single solution” to protect and manage data from on-premises to Microsoft Azure.
Rubrik Accelerator for Azure adds to the Company’s already popular offering for Microsoft customers which features automated data protection for Microsoft Hyper-V, support for physical Windows, and instant database recoveries with SQL Live Mount.
Mike Tornincasa, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Rubrik said: ““Every enterprise customer I speak with has cloud ambitions. However, many organizations are held back by complex legacy data management solutions that keep the cloud migration process out of reach. The Rubrik Accelerator for Microsoft Azure makes it easy for enterprises to move to a hybrid cloud model, and in turn, innovate faster, be more productive and unlock cost-savings. Additionally, Rubrik offers customers the ability to manage their entire Microsoft investment on one platform, across on-premises and public cloud environments.”
Microsoft gave it its imprimatur. “Rubrik shares a commitment with Microsoft to drive business results for our customers”, said David Willis, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s US Partner Group. “Our deep collaboration with Rubrik is exciting. Together, we enable our mutual customers to accelerate their Digital Transformation with Azure and deliver for their customers.”
Rubrik continues to align with Microsoft on technology and shared go-to-market investments. Rubrik pioneered Live Mount for SQL to deliver near-zero RTOs and introduced cloud instantiation on Azure for “server-less” test/dev and disaster recovery. Rubrik helps customers leverage the full power of Microsoft with integration across Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office 365, Windows, Hyper-V, Azure Stack, and Azure Data Box. In addition, Rubrik offers support for Azure Government Cloud for customers in the federal space.
The Rubrik Accelerator for Microsoft Azure can be purchased from all Rubrik and Azure channel partners.
Talking AI outfit ContactEngine has been awared ‘Co-Sell Partner’ status as part of the Microsoft for Startups London ScaleUp programme for high-growth technology companies. ContactEngine joins an group selected for comprehensive sales and marketing support and go-to-market initiatives.
ContactEngine’s automated conversation management platform integrates into Microsoft Dynamics to provide an AI-powered ‘voice’ to engage customers across all conversational channels and across all industries.
While traditional CRMs require human agents to engage customers, ContactEngine integrates to automate outbound customer engagement and subsequent transactions, replicating human behaviour through machine learning and natural language understanding. The ContactEngine Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform is hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud, which allows for on-demand global scalability and best-in-class security.
Dr Mark K. Smith, CEO of ContactEngine, said: “ContactEngine shares Microsoft’s objective to optimise organisational outcomes through enhanced customer engagement. We’re pleased to support Microsoft by integrating into their Dynamics Engagement platform to talk to our clients’ customers with intent driven, AI-powered conversations – improving customer experience, and ensuring crucial moments such as sales, deliveries and appointments are executed with precision and minimal effort.”
Warwick Hill, Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups, Western Europe, said: “There is a very strong synergy between Microsoft Dynamics and ContactEngine’s automated conversations and customer engagement capabilities. We are pleased to be able to integrate the full power of ContactEngine, into Microsoft’s solutions through Azure.”
Synergy… it’s like energy…
IT Lab and Content and Code have consolidated their operations to create one of the largest Microsoft partners in the UK.
The combined entity will have a £60 million turnover and 550 staff operating out of locations in London, Manchester and South Africa.
IT Lab has been given the backing of private equity players ECI Partners to since that relationship was struck in 2016 it has made no secret of ambitions to use acquisition as a route to growth.
Content and Code is the second deal that the firm has made in the last 18 months following on from an acquisition of cybersecurity player Perspective Risk last May. The details of the latest purchase have not been disclosed.
IT Lab chief executive Peter Sweetbaum remains at the head of the firm and Tim Wallis, founder of Content and Code, will take on the role of Chief Digital Officer of IT Lab and will lead the future relationship with Microsoft.
Craig Fellowes, productivity sales director at Microsoft UK, said: “Content and Code has been one of our strongest and most trusted partners for as long as I can remember and has continued to set the benchmark for excellence in Modern Workplace. This, coupled with IT Lab’s domain and industry expertise make this is a promising combination to provide our customers with an even more complete solution and support. This new partnership will undoubtedly provide our customers with an additional and credible option to consider when choosing who they want to help migrate, deploy and manage their desktop environment.”
Microsoft today announced a plethora of new Internet of Things-focused updates to its Azure cloud computing platform.
Some of today’s announcements are relatively minor. Azure IoT Central, the company’s solution for helping you get started with IoT, is now generally available and there are updates to Microsoft’s IoT provisioning service, IoT hub message routing tools and Map Control API.
Microsoft said that the Azure IoT platform will now support Google’s Android and Android Things platform via its Java SDK.
What’s more interesting, though, is the new services. The highlight here is probably the launch of Azure Digital Twins. Using this new service, enterprises can now build their own digital models of any physical environment.
It is the virtual counterpart to a real-world IoT deployment and the idea is that as IoT deployment in the real world changes, so does the digital model. It will provide developers with a full view of all the devices they have deployed and allows them to run advanced analytics and test scenarios as needed without having to make changes to the actual physical deployment.
Writing in its bog, Vole said: “As the world enters the next wave of innovation in IoT where the connected objects such as buildings, equipment or factory floors need to be understood in the context of their environments, Azure Digital Twins provides a complete picture of the relationships and processes that connect people, places and devices.”
Azure Digital Twins will launch into preview on October 15.
Formpipe Lasernet – which provides document output management solutions for Microsoft Dynamics – has partnered with HSO, the provider of enterprise business solutions.
The move is all part of a cunning plan to expand Formpipe’s UK business.
Mike Rogers, chief commercial officer at Formpipe Lasernet, said: “We are continuing to build on our partner first strategy and are delighted to welcome HSO onboard. Formpipe Lasernet is a global company and the addition of HSO will strengthen our presence within the UK. The Lasernet product set and partner ecosystem continues to go from strength to strength, so partnering with HSO was a natural choice.”
HSO brings over 25 years of industry experience to Formpipe Lasernet’s established partner portfolio, said Webb. With offices in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, APAC and the US, HSO is said to have delivered successful implementations in almost every country in the world. HSO is an award-winning Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in implementing and supporting ERP & CRM business solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and providing Managed Services to multinational enterprises in Retail, Distribution, Manufacturing and Services.
Mark Cockings, Head of Alliances and Sales Operations at HSO said : “HSO are pleased to be partnering with Formpipe Lasernet to deliver a comprehensive solution for document management with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Our joint proposition enables customers to quickly and efficiently create, modify, control, disseminate and archive branded documentation across their entire organisation. This partnership continues HSO’s strategy to work with best of breed organisations to deliver innovative solutions to meet the growing business needs of our customers.”
It’s a while since ChannelEye has come across the expression “best of breed”. Glad to hear the channel’s mastery of the English language continues, unabated.
Hybrid cloud data protection and storage solutions provider Acronis has announced a new strategic partnership with Vole for deeper integration of Acronis’ data protection products with Azure cloud services.
The new partnership will allow customers and service providers to even more easily store their data or clients’ data in the Azure cloud. Azure will be available as a storage destination option alongside Acronis Cloud and other public cloud vendors in future versions of Acronis products.
Service providers can choose to buy their Azure storage directly from Microsoft, or Acronis can include the Azure storage costs as part of a single invoice.
The partnership is part of Acronis’ overall strategy to support all workloads, delivering safety, security, accessibility, privacy and authenticity for data stored in local, cloud and hybrid environments.
By delivering full support of more than 20 platforms, native integration with PSA and RMM tools, and growing support of public cloud vendors, Acronis enables service providers to make the most out of their existing cloud arrangements
Acronis President John Zannis said: “A lot of products that we build deliver value to clients using Microsoft technology. With easy, reliable and efficient backup and built-in security in the form of active protection against ransomware, our clients enjoy complete protection of their data. Adding Azure as a native storage destination increases their options, making Acronis solutions even more attractive to use. For any organization that has built their strategy on Microsoft, this is great news.”
Judy Meyer, General Manager, ISV partners at Microsoft, said: “It’s great to see how Acronis is transforming the services it offers to its customers, innovating in anti-ransomware and data protection. Microsoft and Acronis have worked closely together over several years in planning the adoption of public cloud services as part of Acronis’ portfolio, and we’re delighted to see the progress that’s been made in using Azure and the Microsoft AI platform.”
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