Tag: US

UK supply chain could be damaged by US/Iran tensions

Posted on January 8, 2020 by - News

The US assassination of Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani could have a knock-on effect on the UK IT supply chain.

Jake Olcott, VP of Government Affairs at BitSight and former lawyer at the House Homeland Security Committee, said there was an increasing cyber threat to the UK supply chain as tensions in the Persian Gulf escalate.

Olcott said: “With the current international climate surrounding Iran, the need for British agencies and critical infrastructure operators to remain vigilant is crucial. Organisations need to ensure their basic security hygiene is kept up-to-date through updated software and patching. Organisations need to ensure that risks in their supply chain, which are a huge concern for critical infrastructure are monitored against threat actors.”

Cloud security spending in the US to hit $1.93 billion by 2021

Posted on November 13, 2019 by - News

Cloud security spending in the United States is expected to reach $1.93 billion by 2021.

In 2016, the US region spent $675 million on cloud security solutions in total, meaning it will triple in the following years.

According to PreciseSecurity.com the United States represents the leading cloud security spending region in the World, followed by the Asia Pacific with $638 million cloud security costs expected in 2021. With $573 million in expenses on cloud security solutions by 2021, Europe takes third place on this global list. In the same period, The Latin America region is estimated to spend $86 million on cloud security services.

US/China trade war will harm smartphone shipments

Posted on June 5, 2019 by - News

The US and China  trade war will hurt global smartphone shipments in 2019, according to Canalys.

The research outfit predicts that smartphone shipments will reach 1.35 billion units this year, representing a 3.1 percent year-on-year decline.

Chinese manufacturer Huawei has been a key figure in the dispute between the two superpowers, with the US last month banning the vendor from using American components and code for its products. It then issued a 90-day reprieve in order to prevent huge disruption to Huawei’s supply chain and users.

European distributors doing better than the US

Posted on June 19, 2017 by - News

noble_80Figures from the Global Technology Distribution Council show that the EMEA distributors have seen sales grow faster than their mates in the US.

The figures show that the European market IT market is growing faster than the US seeing sales surge in the first quarter which helped Europe have a strong start to the year.

Countries that had been in decline last year turning it around with Spain up 13 percent , Portugal 19 percent , France 4 percent , Belgium 12 percent , Germany 7 percent , Norway 16 percent  and the UK with an impressive 12 percent  growth to the end of March.

The UK saw distribution getting high levels of new business.

Tim Curran, CEO at GTDC, told its European summit that the year had started well across Europe, up by three percent  in January, but had been six percent  by the end of March.

He added that the role of distribution had changed and its position as a closer strategic asset for the vendor community was paying off.

“We come from an industry based on inventory, cost and fixed assets, but the amazing integration between distribution and the vendors has produced an industry with lower inventory, but much higher fulfilment rates. That makes it more efficient and profitable,” he said.

The GTDC’s position is that there is still plenty of extra services that distribution could provide vendors, but they have yet to engage with them in certain areas.

“Distribution can also help solution providers with skills shortages, particularly in the technology solutions around the cloud. Vendors often say they need help to enable their partners to take advantage of the new ways of working,” said Curran.

 

European distributors did better than the US

Posted on June 16, 2017 by - News

CLINTDEMPSEYvsgermanyThe European market IT market is growing faster than the US according to findings from the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC).

There was a sales surge in the first quarter that helped Europe to have a strong start to the year.

Countries that had been in decline last year turning it around with Spain up 13 percent, Portugal 19 percent, France four percent, Belgium 12 percent, Germany seven percent, Norway 16 percent and the UK with 12 percent growth to the end of March.

UK distribution had high levels of new business even if there was the ongoing impact on customer plans from Brexit.

Tim Curran, CEO at GTDC, told the assorted throngs at its European summit that the year had started well across Europe, up by three percent in January, but had been six percent by the end of March.

He added that the role of distribution had changed and its position as a closer strategic asset for the vendor community was paying off.

“We come from an industry based on inventory, cost and fixed assets, but the amazing integration between distribution and the vendors has produced an industry with lower inventory, but much higher fulfilment rates. That makes it more efficient and profitable,” he said.

GTDC revealed at the summit that the top three services now being offered by distribution were: demand generation, education, and training along with solutions development.

“Vendors and solution providers are not yet fully utilising the range of services on offer from distribution, however,” he added.

“Distribution can also help solution providers with skills shortages, particularly in the technology solutions around the cloud. Vendors often say they need help to enable their partners to take advantage of the innovative ways of working,” Curran said.

PCM enters the UK and is hiring

Posted on April 28, 2017 by - Moving People, News

XdyfrZEwPCM has unveiled its entry into the United Kingdom and Europe through a wholly-owned subsidiary, PCM Technology Solutions UK.

For those who came in late, PCM is a big US technology solutions provider with 2016 revenues of $2.25 billion and nearly 4,000 employees.

Opening in the UK is the next major step in PCM’s global expansion following its successful entry into Canada in 2015. PCM UK will be conducting a Grand Opening celebration on 2 May and expects to begin sales operations during the second quarter.

PCM UK is driving towards considerable scale and expects to employ 90 co-workers by the end of 2017.

PCM CEO Frank Khulusi, Chairman said that the outfit’s expansion into the UK marks a major milestone for PCM.

“PCM UK will be our hub for the UK and the rest of Europe.  Many of our North American customers are increasingly global with needs for us to deliver to their European operations cutting-edge IT solutions with the same high level of service they have grown accustomed to from us in North America.”

The outfit said that there are significant potential opportunities for customers based in the UK and across the European Union.

“We believe now is the right timing for us to pursue this additional market, and launched our UK operations accordingly. We spent a great deal of time during the quarter setting up the operation, hiring a managing director and various other leadership roles to ensure the success of this international expansion.”

PCM UK has recently appointed Donavan Hutchinson as its Managing Director. Hutchinson joined the PCM in February to help develop and create the UK operation.

Hutchinson worked for other Global IT solution providers where he was directly responsible for creating and effectively executing collaboration programs to extend service offerings from North America based clients into the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific Markets.

Hutchinson, stated, “I am excited to bring my experience and record of accomplishment of successfully growing global sales of IT solutions to the PCM family.  With a mission of delivering a very high level of service to our European clients, we have already built an incredible management team to lead the operation, and I’m confident we will be able to expand the successes of PCM to the UK and across Europe. “

Jay Miley, PCM’s President, added: “Our success in rapidly building the UK operation and preparing it for a grand launch has been one of leveraging our strong relationships with our key vendors and distribution partners who believe in our team and our strategic business plan. I would like to personally thank all of our internal stakeholders, partners, vendors and distributors who are assisting us in executing against our strategy to extend the high level of service and support that our customers currently enjoy today.”

PCM UK is now hiring for positions in sales, vendor management, purchasing, marketing, IT and finance as well as a variety of other business roles.

UK VARs unhappy with US Vendors

Posted on December 21, 2015 by - News

too_good_for_grumpy_catUK VARs are less happy with their vendor partners than their counterparts in the US, according to a new survey.

The research conducted by CompTIA surveyed more than 200 British channel firms earlier this year as part of its State of the UK Channel Report 2015 and compared the results to that of the same survey it carried out in the US.

According to the results only one in five UK resellers would give their vendors the highest possible satisfaction rating. In the US 40 percent thought their vendor is the bee’s knees.

Less than 12 percent of UK resellers were not satisfied with their vendor partners.

CompTIA’s senior vice president for industry relations Nancy Hammervik said it is “not surprising” the Brits were less enthusiastic than their US counterparts.

She thinks channel conflict could be partly to blame although geography does not help. The UK is not a primary indirect target for many US-based vendors. She said that UK partners may feel less satisfied due to vendors assigning less resources, communication, marketing support to regions compared to the US.

More than 40 percent of respondents said channel conflict with vendors has gone up in the last year.

“There are more vendors can do to ensure their channel partners are 100 per cent satisfied and happy selling their products,” Hammervik said.

“If a reseller knows that their supplier is reliable and offers a product that their customers will want, they will have the confidence to retain and expand the relationship, meaning more business and income for the vendor.”

Execs go as Kaspersky loses business

Posted on December 18, 2015 by - News

40153923-1-kaspersky1Two of Kaspersky Lab’s top US executives have cleaned out their desk after they failed to convince US government officials that not everyone in Russia is a pawn in Tsar Putin’s game.

The company’s leader of its North American operations and the head of a Washington-area office went as it struggles to win US government contracts.

Company Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky confirmed the changes in an interview with Reuters during a visit to China but claimed the two personnel changes were unrelated.

Kaspersky said the North America head Christopher Doggett had gone to a competitor while Kaspersky “decided to change leadership in DC,” where the two-year-old office pursues work protecting government agencies and critical infrastructure.

Doggett and former Washington-area head Adam Firestone are not saying anything.

But the shakeup comes at a time when Kaspersky says it is hard for non-American security companies to win bids for federal jobs and big US corporate contracts. The Americans were not really loyal to any non-American products and only British companies are treated in the same way as the Americans.

Kaspersky has been the foremost researcher uncovering Western government spyware for the past several years. Earlier this year, it said it had itself been attacked by one of the most sophisticated strains uncovered to date, with an intrusion it hinted came from U.S. ally Israel.

Kaspersky has also come under US. scrutiny for other reasons after claims that it distributed malware samples that were designed to trigger false positives by rival companies, prompting them to isolate legitimate software on users’ computers. Kaspersky denied it.

But the stories apparently drew attention in the White House and intelligence agencies and decreased Kaspersky’s chances of getting significant government contracts.

Cloud channel will not have long to wait for US data pact

Posted on October 30, 2015 by - News

grandpa_simpson_yelling_at_cloudThose resellers who sell cloud services for US companies in the EU will be relieved to discover that the US is close to coming up with a new “Safe Harbour” deal.

Safe Harbour was a fast-track process that US companies could use to comply with European data protection law, which prevents EU citizens’ personal data being transferred to non-EU countries deemed to have insufficient privacy safeguards.

The EU Courts have struck down the current “Safe Harbour” laws because the US clearly was taking European data.

US. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said that the “Safe Harbour 2.0” agreement currently being negotiated would meet European concerns about the transfer of data to the United States.

“A solution is within hand. We had an agreement prior to the court case. I think with modest refinements that are being negotiated we could have an agreement shortly. The solution … is Safe Harbour 2.0, which is totally doable.”

EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova told a parliamentary committee this week that she hoped to have made progress on “intensive technical discussions” with her U.S. counterparts before a visit to Washington DC in mid-November.

Pritzker admitted that it was costing small and medium-sized US businesses that depend on Safe Harbour a lot of dosh. But that is the price you pay when your government believes that it can spy on whoever it likes.

US cloud supplier in hot water over sexist snap

Posted on May 21, 2015 by - News

fortacloud-tweet A US cloud supplier – Fortacloud – appears to have learnt the hard way about European sensibilities when it posted an advert for its products using a woman in her underwear.

After all, whenever you think of cloud storage the first thing that pops into your mind is a  nearly naked woman in her drawers.

The pic was used to accompany a Twitter promotion and it created an uproar amongst its 22,000 followers.

IT consultant Richard Price wondered what a picture of a half-naked woman draped on a bed have to do with discounted hosting and wondered how this was not sexist.

Product designer Nils Hoenson replied: “Why the hell are you using a picture of a half-naked women to advertise cheap hosting? Sexist idiots.”

Good product attention right?  Not really.  As one customer pointed out  it made him think is the product is so weak they have to go for the lowbrows with cheap sex.

Fortacloud seemed bewildered by the UK response, after all in America you can have tits with everything, only if you show a bloke in his underpants you can be burnt at the stake.

Another attempted to justify the use of the image: “Well, 99 percent of our customers are male between the ages of 18 and 42.”

Of course this made matters worse.

IT consultant Sally Jenkinson tweeted that the original ad was poor. “Your responses take it to a different level and it was an awful judgement,” she said.

After all they are saying that every male in that age range, in their business engagements, wants to look at pictures of birds in their underwear.

Software causes F-35 fighter headache

Posted on March 25, 2015 by - News

DF-SC-82-10542Trying to jack the latest networking tech under the bonnet of Lockheed Martin’s new F35 jet is causing the project some major headaches.

At the heart of the problem is the 2B software which sits at the heart of the $391 billion programme.
Lieutenant General Chris Bodgan said software testing in December revealed problems with the ability of the jets to fuse data about threats on the ground when four F-35s were flying at once. Rhis has lead to project delays.

The issue was being corrected and tested, he said, but the final version of the software would not be ready until early autumn instead of June.

As a result, Lockheed would likely forfeit some of the $300 million in incentive fees linked to completion of three separate software packages – 2B, 3I and 3F – for the jet, he said.

Bogdan said the current version of the software was safe for pilots to fly and the program office could have fixed the problem as part of the 3I software effort, but was pressing ahead now to avoid future delays.

For instance, the fusion problem did not occur when two jets shared data, which meant the Marines could fly two sets of two jets, instead of combining them into a four-jet set, he said.

The software was closely monitoring work on a computer-based logistics system, bulkhead issues with the B-model, and efforts to make the planes more reliable.

Despite all this, the Marines are happy with the programme which in other respects was doing well.

 

Big Brother calls Apple Big Brother

Posted on March 16, 2015 by - News

Ad_apple_1984_2US spooks, who have been dubbed “Big Brother” for their worldwide surveillance programme think that the title belongs to Apple.

Following up its exposé about the NSA’s ability to hack into individual smartphones and decrypt their contents, Der Spiegel published a new story about NSA spying on smartphones which features the spook’s Powerpoint presentation.

One slide calls iPhone users “zombies” who pay for the services that enable the NSA to track physical locations.

Another slide calls deceased Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs “Big Brother”. This because Apple is already collecting a shedload of geolocation data which the NSA can hack.

The first slide in the series alludes to George Orwell’s 1984, which is ironic because Apple became famous with its 1984 advert where it promised to set users free.

Of course the Tame Apple Press is furious  claimed it showed a “profound disrespect” for “we” users. Given that “we” are not stupid enough to buy an iPhone “we” would say that the NSA is showing a profound disrespect for those who pay for the pleasure of being spied on. It is disrespect that people outside the Apple reality distortion field all share.

 

China puts anti-western tech law on hold

Posted on March 16, 2015 by - News

1900-intl-forces-including-us-marines-enter-beijing-to-put-down-boxer-rebellion-which-was-aimed-at-ridding-china-of-foreigners-A law, China claimed was all about counter-terrorism but stopped US technology companies selling so much behind the bamboo curtain, has been put on hold.

A senior US official welcomed the move which he said was a good sign for Western businesses that saw the rule as a major impediment to working in the world’s second largest economy.

President Barack Obama said in an interview with Reuters on March 2 that he had raised concerns about the law directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel said the Chinese have decided to suspend the third reading of that particular law, which has put the law on hiatus.

“We did see that as something that was bad not just for U.S. business but for the global economy as a whole, and it was something we felt was very important to communicate very clearly to them,” Daniel said.

The law would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes that help protect data, and install security “backdoors” in their systems to give Chinese authorities surveillance access.

The move has given companies “some breathing room, but not complete relief” because the bill could be picked up again at any point.

The thought is that the Chinese are not ready to kick out all foreign companies, and because they weren’t ready to take that step, they backed off.

The initial draft, published by the NPC late last year, requires companies to also keep servers and user data within China, supply law enforcement authorities with communications records and censor terrorism-related Internet content.

Although the law would apply to both domestic and foreign companies, officials in Washington and Western business lobbies complained that the combination of that law, the banking rules and anti-trust investigations amounted to unfair regulatory pressure targeting foreign companies.

 

US advances cyber threat bill

Posted on March 13, 2015 by - News

National-Security-Agency--008A move that would allow the US government to share cyber information with private companies has been given the nod by a key committee.

The US Senate Intelligence Committee voted 14-1 on Thursday to approve a bill intended to enhance information sharing between private companies and intelligence agencies about cybersecurity threats.

The Bill will go to the Senate where it is expected to get a full backing – after all many private companies would like all that data that the US intelligence services collect and are quite happy to pay their tame Senators to change the law to get it.

Privacy advocates opposed the bill, worrying that it would do too little to prevent more data collection by the National Security Agency and other US intelligence agencies.

Privacy concerns were cited by the only member of the committee who voted against the bill, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon who saw it as another surveillance bill.

In practice the law is targeted at preventing the major cyber attacks and co-ordinate companies and government departments better. Microsoft, Lockheed Martin and Morgan Stanley, had pushed for a such a threat-sharing bill.

 

Direct phone connections to Cuba on way

Posted on March 12, 2015 by - News

1920s-telephone-advertAn agreement to build a direct telephone connection between the United States and Cuba has been inked, Cuba’s national telecom provider announced.

The US-based IDT reached an agreement with Cuba’s Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA) to provide direct international long distance telephony.

This marks the first finalised agreement between companies from the two countries since the joint December 17 announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro that they would restore diplomatic relations.

“The re-establishment of direct communications between the United States and Cuba will help offer greater ease and quality of communications between the people of both nations,” ETECSA said in a statement.

Phone communication between the two countries was only possible with with calls passing through third countries.

Obama used his executive authority to ease some of the travel and trade restrictions on Cuba and has asked the Congress to lift the embargo completely. Such legislation was introduced in the Senate but has been opposed by the Republicans, hoping to pick up the dissident Cuban ex-pat vote in Florida.