Computer Reseller News Latest updates

Samsung Networks picks UK boss

Doug Woodburn — 2009-07-14T15:30:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Tuesday 14 July 2009 at 15:30:00

Former Nortel head tasked with driving networking vendor’s UK growth

Samsung has unveiled former Nortel executive Paul Templeton as the new general manager of its Networks division.

Templeton, who takes the reins from Julian Barnes, has spent the last 20 years at Nortel - most recently based out of the US as the vendor’s global general manager for enterprise voice products.

Templeton will report into Samsung Electronics' UK managing director, MS Kim.

Samsung said Templeton brings a wealth of experience working with distribution and direct reseller channels in both the UK and Europe.

“Paul is tasked with driving significant growth of the network business and firmly establishing Samsung's position as a market leader. I am sure you will join with us in welcoming Paul to Samsung Networks,” the vendor stated.

IDC predicts Windows 7 channel windfall

Kayleigh Bateman — 2009-07-14T15:29:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Tuesday 14 July 2009 at 15:29:00

For every euro of Microsoft Windows 7 revenue in the UK, partners are set to reap €19.82 in additional services and products

Microsoft's partner ecosystem can look forward to strong growth thanks to the launch of Windows 7, according the market watcher IDC.

In research to coincide with the software giant’s Worldwide Partner Conference, taking place this week in New Orleans, IDC has predicted that for every €1 spent on Windows 7 in the UK, partners will reap €19.82 in additional services and products.

Globally IDC predicts a brisk uptake for Windows 7, forecasting that shipments between the October launch and the end of 2010 will reach 177 million units.

The analyst has predicted global employment will grow by more than 300,000 new jobs, or more than 30 per cent of total growth in global IT employment in 2010, solely because of the launch of Windows 7.

The report said: “In the midst of an economic crisis, with most governments seeking economic stimulus to grow their economies, the launch of a major new operating system should be considered good news – a stimulus package in its own right.”

Avenir eyes comms channel growth

Doug Woodburn — 2009-07-14T12:43:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Tuesday 14 July 2009 at 12:43:00

Orange and O2 distributor wants to be as big a player in fixed-line space as it is mobile

Mobile distributor Avenir Telecoms has hired a former Nortel head to spearhead its push into the fixed-line communications channel.

The Orange, O2 and Three partner has recently branched out into the IT/mobile convergence and mobile accessories markets.

It is now gunning for a slice of the comms market and has hired Ben Price from Nortel to head up the initiative as channel manager. He will oversee work across voice, data and IP/convergence projects while supporting and growing Avenir's dealer base.

Avenir's managing director, Andy Tow, said: “Ben brings with him a wealth of expertise and enthusiasm, which is perfectly matched against our ambitions to become as significant a player in the comms channel as we are in mobile.”

Price has worked in the networking and telecoms industry for over ten years, having also spent time at Telstra Europe and Weston Digital Technologies.

“In this time I've gained a variety of knowledge and skills through employment with market leaders, most recently working with Nortel,” he said.

“I assisted Nortel in successfully launching its SMB product range into British Telecom through its Local Business division.”

Dell hints at green shoots

Sara Yirrell — 2009-07-14T10:40:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell, CRN, Tuesday 14 July 2009 at 10:40:00

Vendor expecting a slight sequential increase in second quarter turnover

Dell appeared cautiously optimistic in its most recent financial statement, claiming demand seems to have "stabilised".

Speaking ahead of a meeting with securities and industry analysts today, Brian Gladden, chief financial officer of Dell, hinted that the vendor expects to report a slight sequential revenue increase for its fiscal second quarter 2010, ending 31 July.

Dell is also expecting a "modest" decline in Q2 gross margins, due to higher component costs, a competitive pricing environment and what it terms an " unfavourable mix of product and business-segment demand".

He said that Dell remains focused on "optimising liquidity, profitability and growth in the midst of a still-challenging operating environment". The vendor is also "on course" to reduce annual costs by over $4bn (£2.5bn) by the end of fiscal 2011.

“We continue to believe that customers are deferring IT purchases, and that we will see demand return to more typical levels at some point,” Gladden said. “In the meantime, we continue focusing our energy and resources on the operating initiatives that will improve the company and position us for future success.”

Looking ahead, Dell also revealed that it will be targeting five to seven per cent compounded annual sales growth, operating profit at or above seven per cent of revenue, and cash flow from operations to exceed net profit.

In a blog on Dell’s site, Robert Williams, director of investor relations at Dell, said: “It's important to point out that such results are dependent on broad global economic improvement accompanied by higher worldwide IT spending, including sustained double-digit growth rate in demand for computer systems.”

Bell reports revenue stabilisation

Doug Woodburn — 2009-07-14T09:51:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Tuesday 14 July 2009 at 09:51:00

Distributor’s second quarter sales fell by just one per cent sequentially

Bell Micro has become the latest distributor to report a stabilisation in tech spending as it announced its preliminary second quarter sales.

Revenues for the three months to 30 June plunged 24 per cent on an annual comparison to approximately $708m (£434m).

However, on a quarter-on-quarter comparison revenues fell just one per cent, compared with a seven per cent drop between Q4 and Q1.

While Europe and Latin American sales decreased three per cent sequentially, North American revenues improved by five per cent.

“We saw signs of a stabilised demand for our products in the second quarter,” confirmed Bell chief executive Donald Bell.

Bell recently filed its annual reports for 2007 and 2008 and expects to file its Q1 and Q2 quarterly reports in the third quarter. This will bring it completely up to date as the storage and computing distributor eyes a return to the stock market.

Following efforts to trim its cost base, Bell said its professional fee spending has halved since Q4. Operating expenses excluding professional fees have fallen by a fifth.

“We continue to be cautiously optimistic that stronger seasonal demand and a significant reduction in our operating expenses, especially professional fees, will contribute to an improved second half of 2009,” said Bell.

Microsoft revamps partner programme

Kayleigh Bateman — 2009-07-13T16:22:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Monday 13 July 2009 at 16:22:00

Software giant kicks off Worldwide Partner Conference with Microsoft Partner Network launch

Software giant Microsoft has begun its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) by unveiling its Microsoft Partner Network.

Starting today and running until Thursday, the New Orleans-based WPC is an event for Microsoft’s 640,000 business partners.

Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the worldwide partner group at Microsoft, started the event by announcing the revamped partner programme during this morning’s keynote.

She said: “Microsoft is entering the biggest year of product launches in its history, and partners will play a pivotal role in bringing to market what customers want – choice, flexibility and cost savings.

“With the Microsoft Partner Network, we are creating a community based on our continued commitment to serve the needs of our partners that will help them reach their full potential. Working together, we continue to focus on creating innovative solutions that drive profitability and sustain competitive advantage.”

Along with the programme revamp, Microsoft also mapped out future releases, saying it wants to equip partners to drive innovation, save customers money and compete confidently despite the economy.

Bill Veghte, senior vice president for the Windows Business at Microsoft, gave a rundown of new partner offerings and opportunities surrounding Windows 7, which is due to be released to manufacturing later this month and launched in October.

Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, revealed that Office 2010 and related products have reached the technical preview milestone, and disclosed new Office 2010 features and opportunities for the vendor’s partner community when it becomes available in the first half of 2010.

In addition, Microsoft revealed that 5,000 partners have enrolled in its Microsoft Online Services Partner Programme since it was launched at WPC08.

Furthermore, the vendor claims four out of five orders for its Business Productivity Online Suite have come through partners and that partners have built more than 100 custom solutions exclusively for Microsoft Online Services.

UK economy on the up, report suggests

Sara Yirrell — 2009-07-13T13:16:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell, CRN, Monday 13 July 2009 at 13:16:00

Equifax second-quarter report hints that recovery could be just around the corner

Company failures in the UK seem to be slowing down, according to a report from business information specialist Equifax, leading it to speculate that the UK might start to emerge from the recession in the third quarter of 2009.

Covering Q2 2009, the Equifax Business Failures Report showed an alarming 40 per cent increase in firms going bust compared to 2008, but a quarter-on-quarter comparison showed a more encouraging 2.2 per cent increase in Q2 2009 compared to Q1 2009.

Neil Munroe, external affairs director at Equifax, said: “While the year-on-year figures are pretty stark, this is not surprising. But I believe it is more relevant to look at how businesses are faring quarter by quarter this year.

“Undoubtedly, the recession is still having an enormous impact on business fortunes, with many organisations simply unable to survive against the onslaught of falling sales and restricted access to funding to cover the cashflow gaps.

“Our figures seem to suggest that we could have hit the bottom by the time we reached the end of the second quarter and in some areas there is an improvement, albeit small.”

However, Munroe was quick to hedge his bets: “Of course, the next question has to be whether we are going to see the sustained upturn of a V-shaped recession or whether this is just a small pre-summer blip and failures increase again, more typical of a W-shaped recession.”

On a regional basis, all regions apart from Scotland showed a year-on-year increase in failures, but no region showed increases of more than 10 per cent, and four regions – the North East, Wales, Yorkshire & Humberside and the West Midlands – actually showed a decrease in the number of companies going under, Equifax said.

Both London and the West Midlands saw quarter-on-quarter insolvency increases of 9.4 per cent; business failures in the South West rose by 1.9 per cent and in the South East by 1.8 per cent.

In terms of sectors, the Equifax report claimed the retail sector had shown the greatest improvement, with an 11.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop in failures. The wholesale sector saw a 5.1 per cent drop in firms going under and the construction industry saw failures fall to 4.1 per cent. Transport and communications saw a four per cent drop quarter on quarter.

Still struggling, according to the report, were services, with a 10.9 per cent increase in failures and manufacturing, with a 2.9 per cent increase.

Munroe concluded: “It is crucial that those businesses holding their own take the right precautions to protect themselves from some of the risks of these exceptionally tough trading conditions.

“They need to continue to use rigorous credit checks, alongside ongoing monitoring of the financial status of their customers and suppliers. By operating best practice and harnessing the power of the latest risk management solutions, firms can minimise the threat of bad debt and secure the future of their business.”

Cisco ousts Nortel from Olympics deal

Doug Woodburn — 2009-07-13T13:00:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Monday 13 July 2009 at 13:00:00

Cisco picks up London 2012 infrastructure deal after organisers rule Nortel could no longer deliver

Nortel has been stripped of Official Network Infrastructure Partner status for the London 2012 Olympics, due to fears that its impending break-up will prevent it from delivering a full service.

Rubbing salt in the wound, the infrastructure contract has now been awarded to arch-rival Cisco.

The Olympics’ organising committee – LOCOG – stressed that the split was “amicable”.

London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said: “We part with Nortel on good terms. Nortel acknowledges our fixed deadlines and our desire to have a single supplier for our entire network infrastructure has been impacted by Nortel’s decision to move towards standalone businesses.

“This is in no way a reflection of their capabilities – this is all about meeting our fixed deadlines.”

After being invited to bid for the contract, Cisco has now been unveiled as the replacement, becoming one of just four Tier Two suppliers alongside EDF Adecco, Cadbury and Deloitte.

Phil Smith, chief executive of Cisco UK and Ireland, said: “We are delighted to be working with LOCOG to provide the network infrastructure for London 2012.”

Datatec heaps praise on Westcon

Doug Woodburn — 2009-07-13T11:52:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Monday 13 July 2009 at 11:52:00

IT group’s interim statement contains signs that tech equipment spending is starting to come back

Datatec has become the latest channel outfit to report green shoots as distribution arm Westcon exceeded expectations for the start of its fiscal year.

In an interim management statement for the four-month period to 30 June, South Africa-listed Datatec said that market conditions had stabilised since the end of its fiscal 2009.

Cisco distributor Westcon was singled out for praise, with Datatec revealing that its profitability has improved compared with the third and fourth quarters of last year.

Westcon’s European business remained stable, while the Americas region saw a modest improvement in trading and Asia-Pacific remained strong, Datatec said.

Meanwhile, reseller arm Logicalis continued to encounter “soft” market conditions in both the US and the UK as larger projects were delayed.

However, Datatec stressed that it was heartened by Westcon’s performance, pointing out that distribution is a better gauge of short-term changes in capital equipment expenditure.

Datatec stated: “The Group expects Westcon's financial performance to continue to improve for the remainder of this year, particularly as this business will benefit strongly from the high operational gearing that now exists as a result of the significantly reduced cost base.”

UK e-tailer opens for business

Kayleigh Bateman — 2009-07-13T11:25:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Monday 13 July 2009 at 11:25:00

Former Avanquest director Jon Silvera launches Downloadbuyer

Downloadbuyer.com, a new UK-based software e-tailer, has opened for business.

The online reseller has been formed by channel veteran Jon Silvera. Silvera acquired FastTrak Software Publishing in 2005 and went on to sell the company to developer Avanquest Software in 2006, where he took on the role of corporate retail director.

Downloadbuyer offers a catalogue of software titles for both PCs and Macs, all in a downloadable format.

The site carries the likes of Magix, ZoneAlarm, Net Nanny, Sun Microsystems, Aqua Connect, Datawatch, Avanquest, IMSI, Fast Reports, Kinemac, Inertia, Mariner, ABBYY, F-Secure and Vertus.

Silvera said: “Downloadbuyer.com is about choice, convenience and value, but more than this it is also about interaction, communication and satisfaction.”

Search results on the site are displayed in real time.

The Downloadbuyer platform has been developed internally by technical director and co-founder Mike Green. With a background in web and application development, Green has 20 years of industry experience.

Focus: Doing business the green way

Fleur Doidge — 2009-07-10T14:57:00.000Z

Fleur Doidge, CRN, Friday 10 July 2009 at 14:57:00

Regulation changes and cost issues means firms are rapidly becoming more environmentally driven, says Fleur Doidge

In a recently released film, The Age of Stupid, a man living alone in a devastated 2055 reminisces over footage from 2007 and asks why the human race did not take any action to stop climate change when it had the chance.

Tracey Rawling Church, director of brand and reputation at print vendor Kyocera Mita, previewed the film. “It asks, ‘When we have the chance to save ourselves, why don’t we?’,” she said.

“I am aware that there are people who claim it is all a conspiracy, or that it is all Al Gore’s fault, but it doesn’t take rocket science to work out that our future depends on looking after this planet and if we don’t it is pretty much curtains for us.”

Kyocera has long been keen to present itself at the forefront of moves towards increasing environmental sustainability. Its environmental charter states that it will operate in accord with its basic management philosophy, which is not only to provide for the material and intellectual growth of the company and its staff but to “contribute to the advancement of society and humankind”.

The Japanese parent company believes that preserving the environment is central to achieving those goals. It requires all its affiliates to actively participate in sustainable measures that will protect the environment.

But green IT is not just the latest fad.

Andy Lawrence, research director of analysis on eco-efficient IT at The 451 Group, said green IT really started in around 1990.

“They were more concerned then with paper and chemicals in manufacturing, as well as waste and disposal,” he said. “And it did result in some reductions.”

We all know that the vision of the paperless office turned out to be a mirage. Costly paper consumption actually increased as businesses and customers alike found the need to create more records and archive electronic files many of which were never used again.

Paper is only finally being less used now as cost pressures are brought to bear. “There are signs that paper consumption is falling, but it is unclear whether that is just because of the recession or increased use of collaboration technologies,” said Lawrence.

“It is also possible that paper production may be a form of carbon sequestration. The real issue isn’t the paper but printing: the toner and the ink.”

The business imperative

Scientists do generally agree that we must take better care of our environment. The devil is in the detail, and research therefore continues. But whether you agree or not, the business imperative one that’s not going away any time soon is about cost and waste control.

And printing waste is not the only or even the most important issue. Lawrence said that the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive has mandated improved management of electronic waste. And today the emphasis is increasingly moving to the datacentre.

“Around 2003, people started to realise that datacentre energy costs were very, very high, which again raised questions about the carbon footprint of all that energy use,” said Lawrence.

“The focus went very much to the datacentre, especially in 2007 when the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) reported to the US Congress.”

The difficulty for resellers and their customers is in differentiating genuinely eco-efficient offerings from the merely greenwashed, he added.

But that choice is an important one to make because the 2007 report r evealed that datacentres account for 1.5 per cent of US energy use. That figure is expected to be similar in other developed nations and to double by 2012.

“Existing technologies and strategies could reduce typical server energy use by an estimated 25 per cent, with even greater energy savings possible with advanced technologies,” the EPA reported and that was all the way back in 2007.

Since then, organisational eco-efficiency strategies have concentrated on improving the energy use and insulation of datacentres. This is particularly critical when much datacentre kit is habitually left running whether it is in use or not.

Beyond that, most businesses could save a lot of energy by deploying simple things like desktop power management software. Surprisingly, few firms have done this, according to Lawrence, despite evidence suggesting it is very effective in saving energy and money.

Suppliers have been growing their desktop power management sales 20 per cent, 30 per cent or even 100 per cent a year as a result, and the market may double or even quadruple in three or four years.

“But it is hard to predict,” added Lawrence. “For example, Microsoft is always capable of integrating a lot of that technology into its own products. But it is a good market right now.”

The UK government’s CIO council has also indicated that a plan around desktop use will be formulated although it is likely that it will be carefully worded to allow CIOs to use their discretion.

“It will provide clear guidelines on when equipment should be replaced,” said Lawrence.

Rawling Church said she believes that most green IT initiatives are driven by a near-universal need for improved efficiency. Kyocera has worked towards that goal across its range, redesigning printer technology such as cartridges where needed, bringing technology into line with standards such as ISO 14001.

Developments in motion

Products that create even less heat and use less energy than before are always appearing. Duplex printing has not yet been widely adopted, but even that potential has now been superseded by ‘two-up’ and ‘four-up’ where two or four pages are printed on one side.

Print-and-follow technology means people can no longer hit print and then forget to pick up the document the cause of the traditional paper mountains at many departmental printers. Instead, they are forced to swipe a card or enter a passcode at the printer itself to actually print out.

“Since the first Kyoto Summit in 1992, people have been talking about things like embodied carbon, counting everything that has gone into a product,” she said. “But, actually, the biggest issue is in how people use the products.”

Culture and processes need to change. These things provide obvious revenue opportunities for the channel through consultancy, training and other IT-related support to customers.

“The key thing is that it really is not about polar bears,” said Rawling Church. “It is all about the sustainability of humankind being at risk. I have heard some really interesting people speak on the subject recently. One man pointed out that fluctuations in climate are natural and not a new thing, but it has never happened when industrialisation was already taking place.”

The problem can be summarised as exponential growth and demand for resources colliding with climate change. That means that thinking about green is not a nice-to-have but a must-have. Governments are falling into line and businesses must as well, notes Rawling Church.

“When people started out with it, there was a huge price premium,” she said. “In our technology at launch, that was 10 to 15 per cent. But there is no longer a price premium with our products in fact, over time they will cost you less. And this is true for a lot of environmentally focused technology.”

With business lobby CBI estimating that some 30 per cent of energy used by UK businesses is wasted, there appears to be plenty of room for increased energy efficiency, said Rawling Church.

Most movies are made pretty much purely to entertain. But like its extremely successful forerunner, An Inconvenient Truth, The Age of Stupid has a definite message and purpose.

It also wasn’t made or sold like other films it was crowd-funded from the start (the first £50,000 was rumoured to have come from punters in a London bar on a single night) and employs the distributor directly.

It is also likely that innovative, individual approaches from IT providers and the channel will also prove essential if the green message is to succeed.

Popular power

Another company that has already recognised the inevitability of being green and that has started to make changes that will help its customers towards more environmentally efficient businesses is IBM.

Jacqui Davey, vice president of the business partner organisation at IBM UK and Ireland, said green IT has become a business imperative. Drivers for action move beyond costs to regulation and compliance, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder reputation and business development.

“IBM recognises that solutions to climate change represent both an opportun ity for innovation and an imperative for corporate action,” she said. “As such it is helping clients reduce energy use and carbon across their business, while implementing climate protection as part of its own strategy.”

IBM tries to take a holistic view of customer needs, moving beyond the close focus on IT through its energy and environment model, and harnessing its 100,000 Business Partners as much as possible.

It promises to invest in channel success, offering training, education and incentives that help them offer value-added services.

“Further, we engage our Business Partners in opportunities that arise from emerging technologies and evolving market dynamics,” said Davey. “So, in support of this we continue to share our vision and messages for climate change with the channel and how the channel can take advantage of latest technologies.”

IBM is helping Malta develop nationwide smart grid systems for power and water distribution that are aimed at improving efficiency and customer service.

It also tackled Chinese shipping giant COSCO, helping it move from 100 to 40 distribution centres, slashing logistics costs by 23 per cent and CO2 emissions by 15 per cent or 100,000 tonnes a year. It has been building greener datacentres in universities in Australia and the US, that it claims can halve the power needed.

“This is a massive opportunity,” said Davey. “There will be £233bn spent on business upgrades to infrastructure by 2025.”

IBM itself reduced its CO2 emissions by 40 per cent between 1990 to 2005. Big Blue pledges to reduce its own greenhouse gas footprint seven per cent from 2005 figures by 2012, primarily by saving energy.

Globally, IBM renewed or recycled £100m of kit in 2006, returning one per cent to landfill.

It is also aiming to reduce energy costs and consumption through system and resource optimisation.

Businesses and governments are opting for smarter and greener buildings, IT infrastructure, utilities, supply chains, and business operations.

“This is clearly around key emerging technology and is a key evolving market,” said Davey.

However, she added that the market currently appears oversaturated with solutions

that have a green label in one way or another. Customers and resellers need to be able to differentiate.

IBM is looking across customer needs, at IT infrastructure efficiency, at business process transformation, and at the need for the development of new products and services. It has formed the Green Sigma Coalition, an industry alliance to provide better metering, monitoring, automation, analytics and the like for energy, emission, water and waste management.

“The coalition will enable companies using these solutions to better understand energy and water usage, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions across their business operations,” said Davey. “It will help them make changes to improve efficiency, reduce consumption and waste, and lower environmental impact.”

Other members include Cisco, ABB, Honeywell Building Solutions and Siemens Building Technologies. The Lean Six Sigma business improvement methodology will be applied in assessing customer needs and processes because when it comes to green IT, the best solutions must be complex and individually tailored.

“There is no one answer,” said Davey. “Every customer is different. Solutions can range from developing smart grids, to smarter datacentres, to digitising otherwise paper-laden processes and technologies that monitor and help reduce carbon emissions.”

Taking responsibility

According to IBM, green technology solutions can be most successfully offered by paying attention not just to Return on Investment (RoI) but also the notion of corporate social responsibility which is gaining ground in an era of mandated accountability, sustainability ideals and regulatory compliance.

Meanwhile, VARs must, as usual, demonstrate real business benefits to prospective customers.

“Particularly in tough times, resellers can encourage businesses to spend money on environmentally friendly initiatives,” said Davey.

Independent analysis may agree. The London office of Datamonitor has just released a report, Can Green IT Bloom in an Economic Downturn?, which indicates that green IT is one area in which businesses are still keen to invest.

Rhonda Ascierto, senior analyst at Datamonitor and the report’s author, said: “The global economic recession has spurred a shift in the way organisations evaluate, budget for and deploy green IT.

“The downturn has also resulted in green IT trends for datacentres, client devices and asset lifecycle management, as well as reshaped return on investment (RoI) models.”

While IT spend overall has remained flat, green IT is a larger proportion of that spend. Organisations no longer regard green IT and cost-effective IT as mutually exclusive concepts. In fact, green IT that lets companies slash capital expenditure is enjoying increased demand with environmentally focused legislation and cost control as the drivers.

Datacentre virtualisation, datacentre design and layout, as well as asset lifecycle management, have become increasingly important, and the green IT market is expected to benefit and evolve accordingly, the analyst said, especially as green IT vendors are being forced to develop IT solutions that are more efficient as well as environmentally friendly.

“Flat IT budget growth also means that organisations that face critical datacentre limitations, such as a shortage of floor or rack space, are looking to software or outsourcing alternatives to building new datacentres or upgrading existing facilities,” said Ascierto.

“Those alternatives include IT leasing, managed services, virtualisation software, cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS).”

Changes in the datacentre

Cloud computing should also be green. Meanwhile, datacentre virtualisation will become more all-encompassing with servers, storage, communications infrastructure and business applications being virtualised across a pool of datacentre hardware, the analyst said.

The next UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) summit is coming up this December in Copenhagen, following an initial June round of negotiations, involving 182 nations, in Bonn.

With the December talks aimed at amending the Kyoto Protocol to take strong action against climate change, it looks like the timing has never been better to go green. Who can afford to look stupid now?

Critical role for channel today

Martin Atherton — 2009-07-03T16:14:00.000Z

Martin Atherton, CRN, Friday 3 July 2009 at 16:14:00

Channel players must inspire their customers to exploit IT to its fullest potential

The channel is the route through which most IT is sold and implemented and, while major IT vendors can provide higher level guidance to the customers, they do not have direct contact with them.

Customers benefit from ‘real’ contextual guidance, face to face, with channel players. The channel is more than just a channel, or at least it should be.

From certain angles, some of the latest technical evolutions and delivery models look as though they could dis-intermediate the channel. Developments such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing spring to mind, if many IT evangelists are to be believed.

However, IT vendors, their channel partners and their customers know that this is untrue today, partly because of the way that technology is bought and accounted for, and partly because most business remains an activity between people engaged at a local level.

But now is not the time for sitting back and enjoying the status quo. Indeed, a major imperative for the channel is in making the opportunity for adding value count for as much as possible.

The current state of the economy only increases the importance of surrounding the products and services for sale with insight, advice, inspiration and guidance.

Business messages

Our recent research has detected a pragmatic and measured set of expectations for how the economic climate will affect IT investment.

Simple messages offered by VARs in this situation can help customers see beyond the vision of IT as merely a cost controller.

Business sentiments are naturally in constant flux. Yet people’s experience of previous downturns seems to be playing its part in helping to shape expectations; most organisations expect to undergo measured and targeted cuts as opposed to large scale reductions.

Again though, nothing is certain and one of the actions open to IT is to take

the initiative to help both sides customers and IT vendors to make the right

decisions.

This is where the channel may exploit its unique position. Indeed, acting in the role of a middle man in the technology industry holds certain advantages.

The gap between the major IT vendor and the non-enterprise customer needs a sturdy bridge.

For the IT vendor, channel partners should be a trusted set of eyes and ears on the ground, keeping manufacturers in tune with industry and regional nuances.

For the customer, the channel partner is the ‘real world’ face of the IT market,

helping put the big ideas and concepts into context and focus.

Looking to the future

As long as the channel exploits these facts, it will remain a vital part of the technology industry ecosystem, regardless of the user or sourcing models that emerge.

The current economic climate is simply the catalyst du jour. It is a wake-up call

for any channel player that has not already started making it clear to customers that they are there to help with more than just processing transactions and, as a result, ensuring that they are worth more to the big IT vendors.

Martin Atherton is a research director at Freeform Dynamics

An interview with the VAT man

Tony N Guise — 2009-07-03T16:08:00.000Z

Tony N Guise, CRN, Friday 3 July 2009 at 16:08:00

A solicitor’s viewpoint for resellers that find their tax situation under scrutiny

HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) Public Notice 160, September 2007, is a statement of practice about the way in which it conducts investigations into indirect tax matters.

You, as a business, are obviously encouraged to co-operate.

Fully co-operating with the authority can lead to a reduction in the civil evasion penalty equivalent to 80 per cent of the tax on which penalties are chargeable.

Be warned, though, they will not pay your costs for dealing with the investigation.

Although they do helpfully point out that you can apply for a reconsideration or appeal against a decision to impose a civil evasion penalty, what they do not explain is that you must appeal within 30 days of the decision (although time may in certain circumstances be extended by the Tribunal).

If you are successful in your appeal, the Tribunal may award costs in your favour. However, that is only from the date you commenced your appeal.

New weapon

In January 2009, HMRC introduced a new weapon in its long fight against

MTIC fraud. Building on the procedures outlined above, Public Notice 161 introduces the interview with HMRC for cases of suspected Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) or carousel fraud.

Carousel fraud refers to the practice of obtaining VAT registration to acquire goods such as hardware or software VAT-free from other EU nations which could then

be sold on. All transactions in the chain of supply may be investigated. It does not apply in other cases of suspected dishonesty.

It is not a legal requirement to engage in the interview process, but refusal to become involved is likely to lead to a higher civil evasion penalty if HMRC believes dishonest conduct has been involved. Discounts of up to 80 per cent may still be possible for full and prompt co-operation.

Advance notice

HMRC will send you details on the following ahead of the investigation:

*That it is not contemplating prosecution (there is a different regime

for those cases)

*The period or periods which it is investigating

*The nature of its suspicions

*The grounds for its belief that you are involved in dishonest conduct

*That false statements can lead to a criminal enquiry with a view to prosecution.

Being a new procedure, experience of this process is limited.

However, there are similar regimes in connection with investigations into the conduct of directors which may lead to disqualification: the so-called Hansard meetings used by the Special Compliance Office of HM Revenue (allegedly unpaid income tax) and interviews about breaches of solicitors’ professional rules by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

In such interviews the authorities often appear friendly. However, it is vital to remember that they are not your friends.

Keep informed

Always be accompanied by a lawyer or accountant familiar with these issues. Thorough preparation is vital, using the information provided by HMRC to

challenge its approach.

If at all possible, make no admissions as these may be used against you in subsequent

interviews or before the appeal Tribunal.

Interviews will concentrate on matters that are complex and (from next year) the matters investigated can be up to four years old.

Most people have difficulty remembering points of detail, particularly in an environment where their livelihood is at risk let alone when the detail requested is about events that happened four years ago.

Do remember to ask for more time to check your records and investigate the issue yourself. Another interview can always be arranged to deal with outstanding issues. Do not be rushed into giving an answer you may later regret.

Interviews may be digitally recorded, although you may insist on a handwritten note being taken.

An investigation can take up to two years to complete, during which time no decision will be reached but VAT may be withheld.

Remember, as a result of recent court decisions about MTIC and contra-trading, HMRC may not be entitled to withhold VAT, let alone impose any penalty. If in doubt, seek advice.

Tony N Guise is partner at specialist law firm Guise Solicitors

IT stimulus will not go to waste

Fleur Doidge — 2009-07-03T15:53:00.000Z

Fleur Doidge, CRN, Friday 3 July 2009 at 15:53:00

An IT consortium claims shared services could save public sector services and cut carbon emissions. Fleur Doidge reports

New IT partnerships will be key to the success of a proposed £1bn public sector stimulus package that sets out to slash costs and carbon emissions.

Logicalis, CA and the Society of IT Management (Socitm) have teamed up with green group Global Action Plan in a shared-services vision, aimed at cutting the cost of running a cash-starved public sector while targeting a mandated 80 per cent reduction in UK carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2050.

They think the £1bn if spent correctly could save £2bn in three years, which could be reinvested in front-line public services and reduce carbon emissions 12 per cent. IT partners will be crucial as the greatest efficiencies can only happen through a cross-organisational, inter-departmental and multi-IT provider approach.

Speaking at a panel discussion on the proposal at Westminster, Socitm president Steve Palmer said the public sector is going to have to work much more efficiently.

“There are significant pressures on public sector finances,” said Palmer.

“Soon there won’t even be the money or resources to run the public sector services that we have now, let alone in the future. There need to be imaginative and innovative solutions. Also, capacity locally to provide investment funds is somewhat limited. What we need is some high-profile impetus.”

Andrew Miller, MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, supported the shared vision, adding that without government support it is unlikely that much change will happen in time, if at all.

“I believe that the solution to some of the issues [in the public sector] is in improving shared services,” he said.

Deployments benefiting from such trends as virtualisation and cloud computing were key, he said, facilitating a reshaping of public sector services to remove inefficiencies, such as the unnecessary and widespread duplication of records and files. They would also slash energy bills cutting carbon emissions.

“The House of Commons has started to think about simple things such as switching off monitors, but we can go further,” said Miller.

Green efficiency

Other shared services could take advantage of technologies such as telepresence, to remove the need for officials to travel again making cost and carbon savings. Money could then be redirected to various environmentally friendly investments, such as an energy industry restructure away from fossil fuels.

Trewin Restorick, chief executive of Global Action Plan, said that bringing different organisations together to work on these types of projects could have impressive results.

“We have to reduce our carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and 30 to 40 per cent by 2020. That’s quite tight,” he said. “Yet government usually works at the speed of a sloth in snowboots walking through treacle. And there are 5,000 organisations in the UK that will be hit by carbon credit legislation.”

IT represents about 10 per cent of the UK’s electricity bill and central government spends £13bn a year on IT. A package like this could help float all boats through better IT spending, said Restorick.

David Swayne, director of information systems at Nottingham Trent University, said his institution, with its 4,000 staff and 26,000 hot-desking students, gained considerable efficiencies through restructuring its IT infrastructure to improve sharing of services.

The university went from 17th place in the green universities league table to first. A team of ‘eco-warriors’, which included students, thought up ways to improve efficiency both IT and non-IT-related and turned those ideas into action.

“We expect to see even more savings in the next 12 months,” said Swayne. “One thing was deploying software that powers machines down when they are not being used, and that monitors them to see when they are being used.”

Gains are possible

Phil Loughlin, chief technology officer at CA, said the vendor’s focus would be on helping organisations to eliminate waste.

“By eliminating waste, you help them improve productivity and so on,” he said.

“There’s a difficult question about whether it means reducing headcount, but we need to focus on getting waste out of IT. From that, you obviously generate a pound saving, and it’s what you do with that pound saving that’s important.”

Chris Gabriel, marketing and solutions director for Logicalis, said the single communications network installed for the Welsh National Assembly, although

criticised for a lack of cohesiveness, showed where gains were possible even in quite large shared-services projects.

“Clearly, we need productivity gains in government and that can improve front-line services,” said Gabriel. “Both sides have to change the IT industry has to step up and deliver innovation.”

The technology is available to make the efficiency gains but what is needed is a plan and stimulus for effective deployment.

“People need to step up [in these projects] and say, ‘how is this actually going to work?’,” Gabriel added.

Public sector holds the key

>> www.channelweb.co.uk/2241591

Red tape makes scanning a must

Fleur Doidge — 2009-07-03T15:30:00.000Z

Fleur Doidge, CRN, Friday 3 July 2009 at 15:30:00

The need to convert paper copies into digital files means great chances for VARs in the scanning market

Not so long ago, some commentators were predicting that office scanners and scanning were going to go the way of the dinosaurs -- or at least of the fax machines, relegated to a dusty corner and rarely used.

However, the massive weight of regulatory compliance now bearing down on all types and sizes of business has given a new lease of life to scanning technology, especially if networkable and integrated into document management and workflow solutions.

Tracey Fielden, head of office marketing at Canon, said the market for its standalone scanners is expanding faster than ever.

"We do everything from desktop paper scanners, which are sheet-fed, right up to application-centric ones, such as volume production scanners or cheque scanners," she said.

Canon sits below the specialist leader Fujitsu -- which has half the market -- but is seeing growing sales, particularly in the low-volume or departmental categories.

"The departmental area of growth is coming from networkable scanners, that talk to the network," said Fielden. "I think that Fujitsu has only just launched a network scanner that competes with ours."

Labour-saving technology

Scanning was often a laborious, principally manual job delegated to one person. A small work-group scanner can share one network and remove that personís workload, processing jobs from the whole work-group.

"The driver is document management, so that people have access to scanners to convert paper documents to electronic files," said Fielden.

Standalone scanners have more features than multi-function devices (MFDs) and can produce better images, often faster or in larger volumes of thousands of pages, automatically. A lot of organisations that use MFDs will buy dedicated scanners as well, said Fielden.

"There will be departmental, standalone scanners dotted around the office."

Peter Trapmore, EMEA sales director at Xerox scanners/Visioneer, agreed, adding that sales of Xerox-branded scanners from Visioneer are growing at a rate of about 30 per cent a year across Europe, including in the UK.

But the technology too has become more appealing. "What has happened is that speeds have gone up and prices have come down. And the scanners have got smaller and smaller," said Trapmore.

Smaller scanners now are document feeders rather than sporting the traditional flat-bed format -- making them easier to use.

"But until the last couple of years, with the drive for compliance, they were not going back to their records to create digital copies of everything," he said.

Hywel Thomas, sales manager at Surrey consultancy and SharePoint reseller BrightStarr, said the future of scanning is tied in with what seems to be an ever-expanding need for improved document management.

"Our customers are asking us for the ability to print and scan documents," said Thomas. "They have mountains of paper."

Growing demand

Alan McLeish, senior product marketing manager at Oki Printing Solutions, which does not sell standalone scanners, said demand was definitely growing for its range of MFDs, which all incorporate scan functions.

Most offer scan to PDF, JPEG, TIFF, FTP, email or to a Windows folder archive on the network. Some offer Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), so users can access their company address book.

"Customers [previously] were asking for scanning functionality but did not necessarily know what they wanted to use it for," said McLeish. "It was not until we added scan-to-email functionality that it started to really take off."

Another useful product is EFI SendMe, an application that allows interfacing between the MFD and a number of different types of scanning utility, including full integration with document management systems.

"If logged on, you can scan to a folder, FTP, email, or to another printer but you can also integrate it with document management," said McLeish.

"For example, with SharePoint, you can view documents on the MFD, de-speckle, de-skew and add meter data, tell SharePoint where they have to go and so on."

Users can ask the MFD to add an OCR layer to the document and then send it to SharePoint. Other applications with which Oki machines are compatible include RightFax.

Compliance and security around document processing is becoming critical for all types of business.

"One of the things that companies like about SharePoint is that you cannot access it unless you are fully authorised," said McLeish.

"That is becoming important with the current need to make sure that the person who enters a document into a system is authorised. So we believe that the scanning functionality will be used more and more by customers."

Xerox copies channel coverage in UK regions

>> www.channelweb.co.uk/2244851

All light on the night

Fleur Doidge and Sara Yirrell — 2008-11-21T10:40:00.000Z

Fleur Doidge and Sara Yirrell, CRN, Friday 21 November 2008 at 10:40:00

The Channel Awards 2008 was a slap-up affair of champagne, bright lights and fancy footwork for over 1,700 of CRN’s closest contacts. Sara Yirrell and Fleur Doidge report

The 15th CRN Channel Awards at Battersea Park Events Arena was the scene of much jubilation as the lucky – and hardworking – winners collected their awards.

With more than 1,750 people attending the black-tie event this year, the CRN team was proud that so many people forgot the economic pressures on them for one evening and turned out to celebrate a night of success.

There was a slight change to the layout of the venue this year, with a mezzanine level introduced for the first time, giving all guests a good view of the main room before the formal part of the evening began.

The charity of the evening was the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Defibrillator Appeal, which is aiming to raise £300,000 to place much-needed defibrillators in tube stations across London.

A silent auction was also run in aid of the BHF appeal, with four VIP tickets to Aston Villa versus Portsmouth as the prize.

CRN editor Sara Yirrell made a brief speech before guests tucked into a three-course meal.

Guest host was comedian Jimmy Carr, who entertained the audience with his dry wit during his after-dinner speech, before launching into the main business of the evening – the awards ceremony itself.

Bill Allan, UK sales director at headline sponsor OKI Printing Solutions thought the event was excellent.

“I was impressed with the venue, the professional organisation, plus the behind-the-scenes efforts and the overwhelming attendance from both vendors and resellers. It was great to celebrate such positive achievements with so many key decision-makers and influencers,” he said.

Julia Lunn, channel marketing manager at Lexmark, agreed. “I think it’s a really good forum for all the channel to get together and network on an informal basis.”

Going out with a gong

Outstanding channel players are still rising to the top against tough times and fiercer competition. CRN’s team of hand-picked and diligent judges found it harder than ever to pick the crème de la crème from the 250 that made it past the initial cull.

No less than 24 glass trophies and eight specially designed Judges’ Commended certificates were given out on the night. These awards will spark memories of 2008 long after the sharp suits and glitzy frocks are pushed to the back of the wardrobe.

Systems Vendor of the Year for 2008 was HP, with HP Procurve taking home the Networking Vendor of the Year Award.

Dave Poskett, director of the Solution Partner organisation at HP, said the CRN Channel Awards is one of the most prestigious award events in the industry.

“As always, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, which provided us with an opportunity to celebrate another great year with our partners. I would like to thank them for their continued support,” he said.

Winning both proves HP’s investment in the channel through its Preferred Partner Programme has had a positive effect, said Poskett.

Bell Micro also took two trophies: Systems Distributor of the Year and Software Distributor of the Year.

The first of the evening’s Judges’ Commended prizes went to Enfield-based Interactive Ideas in the Software Distributor category.

Not unsurprisingly, Microsoft fought off a challenge from VMware and a number of smaller, homegrown software developers to take the Software Vendor of the Year prize.

Specialist Vendor of the Year for 2008 was Kingston Technology. A Specialist Vendor of the Year Judges’ Commended certificate went to IT support services provider Comms-care. Richard Eglon, marketing managing at Comms-care, said: “These awards continue to be the premium event at which everyone wants to be. Even though we haven’t won first place, to be recognised for all our hard work by the judges is just as good. We are delighted.”

SME reseller of the Year went to WStore for the second year running.

Stewart Hayward, commercial director at Wstore, joked: “We won for the second time. But we have been shortlisted every year for nine years, so only winning twice is not good enough really.”

Hayward said that key to winning is getting everyone to vote for you, and starting the campaign for votes in plenty of time.

“The event itself was a great improvement on last year – I have been here every year for the eight or nine years. When it is involved with a charity or a decent brand that people know is current, it is often a better year. This is a better setup than last year too,” Hayward said.

This year’s Battersea Park Events Arena offered an improved layout that encouraged more mingling among attendees, he added.

Storage Vendor of the Year was Symantec, and the leading distributor of storage was Hammer. A storage distribution commendation went to CMS Peripherals.

Security, like storage, is an ongoing area of opportunity and is always a hot topic in CRN. After careful consideration, the judging panel voted Computerlinks as the Security Distributor of the Year, and Global Secure Systems (GSS) the Security Reseller of the Year.

David Hobson, managing director of GSS, said: “This is vindication of the work we are trying to achieve delivering information assurance, from the sales guys through to the consultants. I am really pleased so many clients are here with us to validate our win.”

Security Vendor of the Year was Trend Micro. Paul Anderson, UK and Ireland sales director at Trend Micro, said: “Tonight showed we are passionate about what we do.”

A Judges’ Commended certificate was also awarded in the security distribution category and Woking-based veteran Wick Hill was the lucky recipient.

Wick Hill chief Ian Kilpatrick also took home the channel Personality of the Year Award.

Editor’s Choice Emerging Company of the Year, personally selected by CRN editor Sara Yirrell, was technology infrastructure specialist ANS Group.

Scott Fletcher, managing director of ANS, said: “We were bowled over. This award is real recognition from the industry.”

Corporate Reseller of the Year for 2008 was IT services and solution provider Softcat. David Simpson, commercial director at the reseller, said: “It was another awesome evening. It is great to be recognised for our hard work and commitment to our vendors and customers. Softcat is proud to be a winner.”

The Corporate Reseller of the Year Judges’ Commended Award was given to Computacenter.

Computer 2000 also took home two awards: Networking Distributor of the Year and the much-coveted Distributor of the Year.

However, a worthy runner up in the Distributor of the Year category was specialist player VARlink, which also polled a high number of votes.

Finally the winner of the coveted Reseller of the Year award, for the second year running was BT Basilica.

Nick Wiltshire, sales director at BT Basilica, was delighted to win again.

"This is really important to us and I find it hugely gratifying that our customers and colleagues around the industry have voted for us once again," he said. "As a joint business BT Basilica and BT Lynx have faced lots of challenges over the last year, not least the integration of our two companies, which makes the winning of this award all the more significant as it goes to prove the quality of the service, people and reputation that we now have as one business. "

Winning a much deserved Judges Commended award for the category was Intrinsic Technology.

Start me up

Fleur Doidge — 2008-11-20T10:52:00.000Z

Fleur Doidge, CRN, Thursday 20 November 2008 at 10:52:00

It is ideal to be a new technology venture in these turbulent times, Fleur Doidge finds

Agile technology start-ups with innovative online business models may be well placed to weather a downturn, according to eight UK start-ups who spoke at a Sun Microsystems partner roundtable held recently in London.

Jake Stride, founder and chief executive officer at online sales and contact management provider Tactile CRM, said start-ups can be best placed to make it through today’s economic climate.

“There are positives and negatives. It is a fantastic time for people, but you have to be clever about what you do. We would be a bit leaner in the way that we work,” he said.

Economic pressures in themselves help companies lift their game. On top of that, small start-up companies are often more nimble than larger, well-established ones.

Looking for value

“Large companies are already starting to lay people off. But we can retool and repurpose people a bit more quickly and move things forward that way. It is very difficult for them,” said Stride.

Tactile CRM is doing well, with more customers signing up in recent months. Organisations are increasingly looking for better ways to manage their salesforces and contacts, according to Stride.

“This sort of CRM thing is quite a good area to be in, one that people are really starting to think about,” he said.

Ricky Doyle, director and co-founder of on-demand online training platform developer Practice-IT, said his experience is that most companies are looking for better value for money from services they adopt.

“The difficulty from our side is being known as the alternative,” he said.

Practice-IT has the technology that is wanted and the platform available, but selling it into companies that are reluctant to spend is tricky.

However, the company has a good sales proposition and still expects good results, he said.

Targeted transformation

“Budgets are being cut, but you cannot stop training. For us, the downturn is bittersweet,” said Doyle.

Stride said potential customers are contacting them, but they want to talk about particular topics of concern.

“They want to talk about what works and what does not, what works for business-to-consumer (B2C) and does not work for business-to-business (B2B) and vice versa.”

Whether a customer is B2C or B2B can affect the suitability and appeal of services or solutions offered.

“When we started up, getting user requests for our beta was difficult because we were asking people to load up their data on the web. B2C is easier to do,” he said.

Nick Halstead, founder and chief executive officer of RSS reader maker Favorit, said most start-ups do not have to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

Simon Grice, representative for BeLocal, a search venture slated for launch in early 2009, agreed. He said that start-ups have a better chance than most to surf the highs and lows of any boom-to-bust cycle.

“Start-ups have a unique opportunity because mature companies are cutting marketing spend in a downturn,” he said.

Emerging companies can and should seize the opportunity to expand. And because they are starting up, they will be marketing themselves regardless of the economic circumstance.

“Mature companies often cut marketing first because it is easy. When the back-end is in fact where inefficiencies should be cut,” said Grice. “You need to focus on the business, but not stop bringing in customers and revenues.”

Stride said that some companies do too much marketing and others already have very efficient back-ends and processes.

Also, it contradicted the old adage that you should up-sell to existing customers rather than try to attract new ones.

“I am saying that if you have a choice, do not cut the marketing,” Grice answered.

Ben Summers, technical director at online collaboration, document management and CRM developer OneIS, noted that companies with an online product can target the online community as customers more easily online than through newspapers and the like. Tech-savvy customers are likely to spread your message virally to more traditional customers.

“You are often targeting the online early adopters. And people talk to them and ask them, ‘What do you use? What should I use?’,” added Summers.

The store for knowledge

Kayleigh Bateman — 2008-11-13T11:15:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Thursday 13 November 2008 at 11:15:00

The SNW Europe exhibition aided storage VARs in their search for technologies and intelligence for the coming year. Kayleigh Bateman reports

The mood was surprisingly optimistic at storage show SNW Europe in Frankfurt recently, as exhibitors, presenters, users and the channel rallied to suggest new ways of consolidating storage for customers on a tight budget.

This year, the two-and-a-half day show attracted about 1,000 delegates, including end users, resellers, analysts and members of the media, a little down compared with last year’s figures.

SNW Europe welcomed about 1,400 visitors from 24 EMEA nations and some from as far afield as Japan and the US.

During analyst IDC’s storage market update, Nick Sundby, consulting director for IDC’s European Storage Group, discussed the second wave of green IT as an option for businesses struggling to justify their IT spending.

“The next wave of green IT will be about understanding the problem of rising power costs.”

Sundby said that businesses will by law, from October 2009, have to submit data from their bills and explain their carbon footprints.

“This creates a public relations incentive for businesses to cut down on carbon emissions as the government will publish the results,” he added.

At the show, storage vendor NetApp announced deduplication on its virtual tape library (VTL) systems. This technology can help customers lower the disk capacity required to back up any storage system by up to 95 per cent, the company claimed. That remains true even if the storage kit is by HP or EMC, NetApp said.

John Rollason, product marketing manager at NetApp, said about 16,000 NetApp systems have been deployed with deduplication by some 3,500 customers, so far.

Delivering deduplication

“It is our aim for 100 per cent of NetApp systems to eventually be running deduplication technology. NetApp has a guarantee that it will use 50 per cent less storage with its deduplication – if it does not it will ship more storage,” he said.

Andy Norman, chief operating officer of Glasshouse Technologies, said analysts have suggested that storage will be re-engineered throughout 2009.

Glasshouse gave two presentations for the attendees of SNW Europe, the first was called: Re-engineering Storage – What does on demand really mean and how do you deliver it?

In the presentation, Norman discussed the issue of storage consumers having adopted a model of “fill ‘er up” when they make a storage request – preferring to have spare capacity into which they can grow, rather than risk that a future request might be denied because of budget constraints or response time.

“By building out the frame in a fully populated configuration at the start, it is a simple matter of turning on the next collection of drives. Despite the on-demand model for storage, few firms can yet determine the difference between how much storage they own, how much is allocated and how much is used,” said Norman.

“Due to cost pressures, outsourcing will become popular in a bid to reduce spending, but that storage has to be managed

efficiently. It is common to find a customer that is wasting storage yet continuing to buy more.”

In the other presentation: Great Expectations: Are you Seeing the Real Benefits of Virtualisation? Norman said users that deploy virtualisation solutions are not receiving the return on investment they anticipated and are struggling to manage the environment.

Technology showcase

“Most businesses have virtualised servers now. However, projects tend to slow down because people do not know how to manage virtual environments,” he added.

“Customers need management and administration processes in place to get the most out of their virtual environments. Glasshouse is about getting more out of less from the services we offer.”

Dr Helmut Beck, vice president of storage at Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), said: “SNW Europe is, and remains, an

important show, especially in the current economic climate.

“Storage growth comes from unstructured data with richer and bigger content. The economy may be tough at the moment, but there are new technologies out there which can help solve this.”

Beck highlighted the fact that many businesses have put a freeze on recruitment.

“Because many firms are looking for ways to free up more time for their existing workforce instead of employing more staff, businesses should look at defining their infrastructures, the option of outsourcing and services,” he said.

Vendor Emulex gave a presentation on its new Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) portfolio.

Craig Skelton, director of channel sales for EMEA at Emulex, was keen to assure the channel that all products will be integrated into the partner programme and that full training will be provided.

“FCoE opens up opportunities for partners, so Emulex will be engaging with its channel to ensure it is up to speed on how to take these products to market,” he said.

QLogic’s presence caused a stir among the attendees, showing its FCoE products live from the stand.

Henrik Hansen, EMEA marketing director at QLogic, said: “The attendees at the show were certainly keen to unravel the latest storage and data networking topics.

“Clearly FCoE was high on their agenda. On the QLogic stand and in the SNW tutorial, we were able to discuss the options that are available to datacentre managers.”

Converging futures

The options can typically include up to three fabrics: Ethernet for LAN, fibre channel for the storage area network (SAN)

and InfiniBand, which is for high-performance clusters.

“Attendees and partners actively wanted to understand how SAN and LAN will evolve and converge over the next five years and how they can adopt enhanced Ethernet and FCoE to satisfy convergence within next-generation datacentres,” added Hansen.

QLogic also announced collaboration with Cisco to offer open standards-based host to fabric virtualisation technology, allowing users to attain quality of service (QoS) through Cisco virtual SAN (VSAN).

“QLogic HBA [SAN] integration with Cisco VSANs provides storage administrators with an industry-standard method for improving SAN security, scalability and performance by segmenting physical SANs into multiple virtual SANs,” said Hansen.

Machine language

Fleur Doidge — 2008-11-06T12:31:00.000Z

Fleur Doidge, CRN, Thursday 6 November 2008 at 12:31:00

They might increasingly be talking behind our backs, but this time communication between devices could be to our benefit, writes Fleur Doidge

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications conjures up images of robots talking to each other in dalek tones, waving their appendages and wobbling clumsily over the landscape. While appealing to those of us who love a bit of sci-fi, such images could not be further from the truth.

Stephen Dye, author of End-to-End M2M, a MobileIN.com report, explained M2M as the child of traditional telemetry technology – used by organisations such as NASA, for its space programme – for automated, remote data communications.

M2M comprises field devices, carrier networks and back-end server networks that are mixed and matched to allow devices to communicate with each other and home base. It has been around in various, often wireless, forms for some time. So what is in it for the channel?

According to a June report by IDC, the M2M ecosystem is building around hardware, telecommunications and services. Brian Troelsen, European services and telecommunications research manager, said the European market continues to show significant growth.

“Many M2M implementations are technology centric, built from the ground up to solve a single task,” said Troelsen. “These early adopters usually work with software and hardware providers and mobile operators to define and implement a unique M2M architecture, often requiring retrofitting the equipment to add sensors or data acquisition capabilities.”

IDC said simple, standardised solutions are needed for specific market niches, but the market is fragmented, with end users demanding different things. IDC research division Manufacturing Insights, has confirmed that M2M communication is a catalyst for something many organisations want – business process innovation.

As Steven Dye reported: “An M2M customer has to do a lot of footwork, pulling together the many vendors required to provide the classical three-part device services solution. A wealth of opportunity awaits companies entering the market for M2M services.”

Macario Namie, senior product marketing director at US-based M2M provider Jasper Wireless, agrees. Cellular innovations, for instance, are increasingly sought to build efficiencies in a range of different industries.

Specialised knowledge is required, but the opportunities are real. Jasper Wireless works with system integrators and

value-added distributors such as Avnet and engineering firms such as Rubitech. Packaging and cargo companies like FedEx are more receptive to new M2M solutions.

Namie noted that utility metering uses M2M, as does GPS navigation, and Wi-Fi surveillance – an area where opportunities in the UK and Europe are multiplying. Konica Minolta uses M2M to monitor its printers worldwide for toner use, and “knows” when to order more for customers.

Software and services – often tailored to a unique application – are wrapped around the foundation M2M and telecommunications hardware.

“It is about devices communicating from remote locations back to a single server. It is nothing new, but the applications are evolving as a result of connectivity,” said Namie.

He said one of the main opportunities is helping companies build the software, and that is being seen more often in the M2M space because it is a new category for which expertise has to be developed.

“Resellers are partnering the companies that actually build the solution,” said Namie. “And the other category is managed service providers, who look after them once the systems integrator has handed it over.”

What is more, M2M, according to Namie, is at the stage Microsoft and Intel were at just before the WinTel platform became standard.

While there is nothing that knits together hardware and software for M2M the way WinTel did for client PCs, it will happen and drive adoption when it does.

Rival vendor Sierra Wireless is big on the 3G M2M space with partners such as its value-added distributor Alpha Micro Components. Mobile and M2M group vice president Justin Schmid said that where cellular modules and gateways are concerned, 3G is about to take off.

People think 3G modules are all about laptops, but they are far more versatile than that. “It is about connecting machines and devices – such as for track-and-trace and accessing information over wireless networks,” he said. “I would include applications for things like digital signage.”

Schmid said 3G M2M sales are gaining greater traction in the UK, and that has become more apparent in the last few months. “A year ago, it was dominated by 2G, but today things are 50:50,” he said.

The very complexity of the M2M market, Schmid agrees, is opening a wedge for channel sales to help make specialised systems easy to use and applicable for a broad variety of industries.

Duncan Ellison, sales and marketing director at Sarian, comes at M2M from a different angle, pointing out that growth in new mobile technologies such as high speed packet access (HSPA), coupled with low M2M interest from network operators, offers definite channel opportunities.

Only small amounts of data could initially be transferred, so HSPA opens up M2M for content streaming and even broadband back-up, as well as the things more commonly associated with M2M, such as remote surveillance, said Ellison.

“Resellers can offer a complete M2M package – including mobile router, SIM, specific software or hardware and management,” he added.

Peggy Yoshino, director of global product marketing at Lantronix, said it offers serial-to-Ethernet, wireless and wired connectivity, and embedded and external offerings to various markets. Lantronix works with partners including Alpha Micro and Sphinx.

Lantronix offers DeviceLinx, SecureLinx and new remote-access ManageLinx products, with DeviceLinx representing 75 per cent of Lantronix’ revenue.

“We continue to see acceptance of our Xport and MatchPort products, with external box sales still accounting for a strong percentage,” said Yoshino.

“We have seen double-digit growth figures throughout Europe [including the UK,” she added.

IT solutions that improve lives

Sam Trendall — 2008-11-06T12:24:00.000Z

Sam Trendall, CRN, Thursday 6 November 2008 at 12:24:00

Technology sales are not always just about huge profits for large organisations, as Sam Trendall discovers

The Home Farm Trust (HFT) charity has helped remind VAR EssentialNET and distributor Zycko that technology can do more than drive the bottom line of business.

HFT supports people with learning disabilities and works with 1,000 people across the UK. It offers a range of services, including supported accommodation, holidays, brokerage and help in finding employment.

The charity also encourages users to keep electronic diaries with records and pictures of their experiences. HFT aims to maximise levels of social inclusion for its users so diaries are seen as key, especially when it comes to helping them find work. Written records and documentation are an effective way of displaying competencies to potential employers.

Extracting value

The charity had encountered problems as the learning disabilities of its users made them prone to accidentally overwriting or deleting the work on their e-diaries.

Slow application speeds were also proving problematic for those using IT equipment and HFT wanted to improve the speed of computer terminals as well as introduce a backup system. Users live in different locations and installing separate servers in each was not financially viable for HFT.

WAN optimisation technology from vendor Riverbed was selected to help back up users’ work to HFT’s central location in Bristol.

Jon Arnold, regional sales director for Northern Europe at Riverbed, said his company had a history of working with not-for-profit organisations. “Some of our early adopters were charities and, for us, we can really appreciate that these customers have to get a lot of value out of technology, unlike large organisations that may have generous funding for technology,” he said.

“Often technology companies are focused on delivering solutions to large enterprises. The fact that our technology can help small organisations doing important things is fantastic.”

The installation was carried out earlier this year by reseller EssentialNET, in partnership with distributor Zycko. Kevin Penn, managing director of the VAR, said the project was a breath of fresh air for his company.

“This project was unusual for this industry,” he said. “IT can be insular in what it does and, in the majority of cases, you are putting in systems to make more money for companies or putting in technology for technology’s sake. The

feedback from this installation has so far been very positive.”

Zycko chairman David Galton-Fenzi told CRN the project had gone off without a hitch and the benefits were already evident for HFT and its users.

“The deployment went ahead smoothly,” he said. “By reducing the original data load, we were able to speed up performance while making backing up easier, addressing the two key issues.

“Users are happy, the helpdesk calls have been reduced and the network team’s resources have been free to work on important projects.”

Positive results

HFT’s IT director Martyn Tomkins also claimed the installation had produced positive results for HFT and its users. “We have particularly noticed the difference with word processing applications, email and logon speeds,” he said.

“EssentialNET’s problem-solving performance and the way in which we were encouraged to try this technology before we invested particularly impressed us.”

Penn said he had enjoyed being able to see IT used for more altruistic purposes than simply driving profits or business efficiency.

“This technology was installed purely to make people’s lives that little bit better and we have stopped a lot of the frustrations people get when things go wrong,” he said.

“It really is a pleasant change for us in that we can use technology to improve people’s quality of life.”

Galton-Fenzi echoed this view and took time to praise the good work being done by organisations such as HFT.

“The work of HFT is truly valuable and the service users rely heavily on technology. We all know how frustrating it is to accidentally delete work and to work on slow computers, and both Zycko and EssentialNet are delighted that we were able to work to improve their IT offering.

“It is certainly heartening to see how our work as a team has had such a positive impact on people’s lives,” said Galton-Fenzi.

Specialist distribution may hold AV vendor appeal

Darren Lewitt — 2009-07-14T14:34:00.000Z

Darren Lewitt, CRN, Tuesday 14 July 2009 at 14:34:00

Darren Lewitt offers his views on the changing face of AV distribution

Over the past year, audiovisual (AV) vendors have begun thinking differently. A number, including LG, Philips, Sharp, Sony, InFocus and Vogels, have cut ties with broadline distribution to pursue value sales through specialists.

The AV channel has come full circle, from specialist beginnings some 15 years ago to the crazy Becta years, which saw price erosion like never before. The last five years have seen distributors with IT roots given a great chance to intervene and grab a share of the market.

We think we did this in a way that facilitated a total switch from being an IT distributor with an AV division to an AV distributor with a printer division. Midwich completed our move out of PC-based solutions.

We wonder whether current events signal the end of the road for broadline distributors in the AV arena.

There are lots of noises about Tech Data rolling out the Maverick brand in Europe, but surely it would have been better to try to get it right in the UK first.

Nearly all the manufacturers we have spoken with have told us they are pulling back from quantity-based price point sales in favour of mid- to high-end profitability.

Therefore, AV specialist distribution is needed more than ever. Constant introduction of new technologies is music to the ears of the specialist.

We have extended our Which Lamps brand into mainland Europe, signed a number of big AV vendors, grown the market shares of our existing vendor portfolio, and we believe we have outperformed a declining market.

We also exhibited at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) in Amsterdam and hosted a large AV event at Ascot racecourse, with 450 resellers attending.

We saw a number of distributors arriving on the scene in the mid-to-late 90s. Then the biggest names in the business, such as CRT and GBI (which became Multivision and Maverick), went into administration.

That was not long after the arrival of the big broadline giants, such as C2000, Ingram Micro and Micro P. Although the broadliners didn’t have an immediate impact, they joined an already crowded market that also included Steljes, Midwich, Imago and Medium.

If the last eight months are anything to go by, the question now is whether we are seeing the start of a step change in the AV distribution channel.

It may be a coincidence, but it seems that the arrival of so many new AV technologies has led to more and more vendors deciding to pull out of IT distribution in favour of specialists.

It all started in October, when probably the biggest household name of all, Sony, ended its relationship with broadline distribution. It also added Imago as its preferred videoconferencing partner.

New Year 2009 saw LG and Sharp’s commercial divisions both terminate their contracts with C2000, and recently we also saw InFocus make some radical changes.

Despite having a worldwide strategy with broadliners, InFocus adopted a unilateral approach in the UK, ending a decade of working with fulfilment distribution.

Philips’ consumer unit and Vogels have recently announced similar strategies.

We have heard rumours that other vendors are also not happy with the RoI from their mainstream distribution partners.

Whatever is going on, vendors seem to be jumping ship almost every month, building new strategies with specialist distribution partners.

We think that vendors need distributors to be able to sell up the range while educating the channel about their new technologies. My advice to resellers is to stick with the Tier-1 committed brands in these ever-changing markets.

We saw FutureSource Consulting figures suggesting that IT distributors have not managed to gain even a quarter of the projector market over the years. Presumably, that is even with Maverick numbers switching sides now that it is part of C2000.

Is the credit crisis possibly also fuelling these changes? In tough times, you surely need to focus on your bread-and-butter business needs, and for IT distributors that means PCs, printers, software, peripherals, networking and storage solutions. For specialists, that means AV-related solutions. This surely gives them even more of an edge.

Although demand for AV display and projection offerings is still strong, the days of seeing terrific growth from just selling entry-level, mass-volume 1500 lumen projectors, or VGA plasmas into distinct markets such as education, have gone.

AV display and projection technologies are evolving faster this year than virtually any other sector, with the introduction of so many new technologies – networking, IP, 3D, antiglare, signage, interactive, short throw, widescreen, weatherproof, LED, consumer TV, professional audio and pico solutions, to name but a few.

We obviously think these channel changes are great news for customers. We believe there is more margin returning to the channel via specialists.

Darren Lewitt is divisional director at Midwich

Foreseeing an end to digital piracy or copyright abuse

Matt Fisher — 2009-07-13T14:22:00.000Z

Matt Fisher, CRN, Monday 13 July 2009 at 14:22:00

No matter what you call it, businesses are taking risks with their software assets, notes Matt Fisher

Pirates have been in the news a lot lately, what with the recent Pirate Bay court ruling and the Somali pirates.

It has been argued that using the term ‘piracy’ to describe the illegal use of digital data is in poor taste. But what is the best way to describe the illegal use – some would call it theft – of digital materials?

Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Network, reportedly prefers the terms ‘unauthorised copying’ or ‘prohibited copying’. But, while accurate, these terms lack the impact of the word ‘piracy’.

Stephen Dubner, author of Freakonomics, prefers ‘dobbery’ – the contraction of ‘digital robbery’.

The fact is that software, music, movie and games vendors are still losing huge sums of money because organisations and consumers are not paying for all the digital content they use.

In the context of software licensing, compliance and, in its broader sense, software asset management (SAM), illegal use within organisations is mainly about a systematic failure to properly manage software rather than deliberate abuse.

Yet such use will still be targeted both by software vendors and the authorities. This, however, appears to be doing little to motivate businesses to fix their software licensing as many IT managers still don’t know exactly what software exists on their network.

Perhaps resellers should focus on the cost savings that SAM can deliver to organisations immediately, rather than the threat of fines and the like.

Organisations should aim for the most return from their technological investments. Purse-strings are tighter and decision makers may yet cut costs across the business. Cost savings should be a welcome incentive to any organisation.

Not having complete visibility of software assets means businesses may overspend on software in various ways.

Firstly, organisations that do not make the most of the renewal and maintenance agreements they have with their existing software providers may pay more than they should.

Secondly, they may buy duplicate or replacement copies of various applications. Lastly, if employees can download their own software to a corporate network, this can put companies out of compliance – as, for example, staff when downloading may tick the box to agree to the ‘personal use’ licence terms rather than those for businesses.

Research in the UK last year found that organisations were in fact over-spending on purchasing and maintaining software by about 20 per cent.

Talk of copyright theft is doing nothing to encourage businesses to comply. Maybe the way to get executives serious about managing their software investments is not to accuse them of being pirates but money wasters.

Matt Fisher is director of Centennial products at FrontRange Solutions

Social service is resumed

Sara Yirrell — 2009-07-10T12:53:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell , CRN, Friday 10 July 2009 at 12:53:00

I’m not sure how many of our readers actually go on our www.channelweb.co.uk site or are aware that we update the site several times a day with news but the online revolution is continuing in the channel.

Social networking has definitely been one of the biggest breakthroughs of 2009 and CRN is not slow off the blocks with this.

We are trying our best to get closer to our readers, but as with all these things, getting started is never an easy proposition. However, momentum is definitely picking up as more and more channel players wake up to the internet.

As well as the launch of our Channel Debate where we are asking as many channel players as possible to take part in our online debate we have now launched a CRN LinkedIn group www.linkedin.co.uk/CRN UK.

It is open to all our readers the only stipulation is that you have to be involved in the channel in some way.

We are hoping that this will be the first stage to creating an official CRN channel community, through which grievances can be aired, discussions can be held and questions answered.

You can also post your news up there for all to see and gather the thoughts of your peers.

Membership is free; you just need a LinkedIn account. We had a flurry of new members on launch day and a steady trickle from then on in but the more members we have the better it will be.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Sara Yirrell is editor of CRN sara.yirrell@incisivemedia.com

Atos Consulting reports on predictions post-recession

Will Hyams — 2009-07-09T13:09:00.000Z

Will Hyams, CRN, Thursday 9 July 2009 at 13:09:00

Will Hyams says organisations are still focusing on their future and that of IT innovation through the downturn

Our annual trends report, Look Out 09+, spotlights themes we are seeing across our primarily European market and client base. Perhaps surprisingly, many of the issues extend across different industries, where their impacts may vary considerably.

We found that, despite the downturn, business and civil leaders are still paying attention to issues besides cost.

C-level executives are worried about the downturn, retaining talent, risk management, customer intimacy, carbon legislation and the challenges of the post-downturn world.

However, they are also keen to embrace net-enabled working to gain competitive advantage, with a focus on Web 2.0, mobile workers and open innovation.

R&D is being squeezed, but there is also an unprecedented demand for new innovative answers. Each technological advance must have a clear, defined business purpose. Lag time is becoming less acceptable, especially for IT.

Developments such as cloud computing reflect a desire for cheaper hosting and a need to fulfil business requirements cheaply and quickly.

Consumer IT will lead to many employees finding it especially difficult to understand why the technology they use at home is not available in the workplace – and in some cases take this into their own hands.

Part of the legacy of the banking crisis is erosion of trust in big businesses. Customers cross-industry are looking for more transparency and a human touch.

Our study suggests that organisations need to demonstrate a desire to build genuine relationships with customers by listening and acting on the information shared with them through existing and new channels, such as social networks and blogs.

A challenge is the multi-demographic workforce. As the retirement age extends and so-called "digital natives" enter the workforce, organisations must create cohesion between these groups, which may work very differently.

Generation Ys entering the workforce will pose new challenges as they will not fit with induction strategies. The average Gen Y employee will be looking to leave an organisation within two years – before most graduate training programmes have even been completed.

Everyone in the 21st century knows what it means to be drowning in data. With huge bandwidth increases and constant, easy communication, data management is under pressure.

Improving IT infrastructure may not be enough. Perhaps emerging technologies such as wearable computing could help, by enabling us to gather and sort data as we go about our daily lives.

Our study also looks at futuristic technologies that may play a part in business eventually. These include plastic transistors for flexible displays – which could support all sorts of applications, such as cheap, supple monitors that could one day adorn every flat surface – or nanowire power generators through to bionic lenses.

Businesses everywhere are focusing on the future despite the downturn. This is driving increasing evaluation and adoption of new technologies.

This tough period will end, and when growth returns, the world will be a different place. The old ways may offer no certainty of success and new challenges will be faced – especially around freedom versus control.

Will Hyams is CIO adviser at Atos Consulting

Channel programme cutbacks are false economy

Jonathan Hughes — 2009-07-08T17:16:00.000Z

Jonathan Hughes, CRN, Wednesday 8 July 2009 at 17:16:00

Jonathan Hughes looks at how vendors could best help partners

Cutbacks in channel programmes have become more common, but savvy vendors are continuing to invest as they rightly consider their partners an extension of their sales force.

Of course, with budgets being stretched, many vendors must streamline their businesses, but reducing investment in the channel is not going to be a profitable long term strategy.

The goal should instead be to increase partner loyalty and thereby boost profits.

Failure to do so could result in previously loyal partners favouring competitors’ solutions due to the better support on offer, or simply looking out for themselves and offering whichever quick-fix solutions are easiest for them to sell and generate the most margin and ongoing revenue.

Many security vendors do not seem to recognise this, and rather than working with partners to win more business and ride out the recession, they are actually working against them.

For example, it is becoming more common for vendors to actively encourage customers to renew directly, either via their website or through their sales team.

With renewals often accounting for much of a reseller’s revenues, this is only going to alienate partners.

Customers are demanding more for less, and competition in the channel is intensifying.

To help the channel prosper, vendors should look to deliver business growth for dedicated partners. Initiatives such as enhanced support, new deal registration and margin protection, can all build a trusting partnership, giving partners the tools and training needed to beat the competition.

A one-size-fits-all approach will not work either. Partners need access to the specific tools and information that will help – it’s unlikely to be the same set of tools that benefits everyone.

Forcing a partner to wade through mounds of information to find a much-needed nugget, similarly, is a sure-fire way to lose resellers.

Vendors should aim at striking a balance by providing an interactive portal that offers a personalised experience, as well as regular face-to-face or phone contact.

The whole programme should be regularly refreshed to keep up with changing requirements. For example, running a portal is a service, not a product, and on top of the standard product information, white papers and pricing tools, vendors should offer something new and exciting, such as marketing resources or ‘seminar-in-a-box’ packages.

By giving partners the freedom to find what information they need online, vendors can empower the channel and build loyalty beneficial for all involved.

However, it’s important also to be available to partners who want more personal contact, either because they have a pecific requirement a portal cannot deal with, or because strong relationships cannot be built solely over the web.

Jonathan Hughes is vice-president of Sophos UK