The most recent News from Incisive Media

Pumped storage hydro plants enjoy dual boost

James Murray — 2009-07-03T00:15:00.000Z

James Murray, BusinessGreen, Friday 3 July 2009 at 00:15:00

Scottish and Southern announces plan for first new UK pumped storage plants in more than 30 years, as US government releases fresh hydro funding

There was good news for the hydroelectric industry on both sides of the Atlantic this week, after Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) announced plans for two new pumped storage developments and the US government unveiled $32m (£19.5m) of new funding for the sector.

Announcing its plans at the official opening of its new £160m hydroelectric scheme at Glendoe in Scotland, SSE said it would seek guidance from the Scottish government on proposals to build a 300MW and 600MW pumped storage plant in the Great Glen.

The company said it was aiming to submit planning applications for the two developments in 2011. It added that both projects would require new dams to be built, but insisted the pumping and electricity generation infrastructure would be built underground, limiting the visual impact of the developments.

Pumped storage systems work using two reservoirs that are built at differing heights. During periods of peak demand, energy is generated by releasing water from the upper reservoir to drive turbines. The water is pumped back up to the upper reservoir from the lower reservoir during periods of low energy demand.

The last pumped hydro plant was built in the UK more than 30 years ago at Dinorwig in Wales, but interest in the technology has been revived in recent years as energy firms look for a carbon-free means of plugging any energy shortfalls that result from the intermittent nature of wind power. The approach also allows excess energy produced by wind farms during periods of high winds to be effectively stored, by using the resulting electricity to pump water from the lower to the upper reservoir.

"Our goal is to maintain a diversified portfolio of power stations, with the flexibility to respond to customer demand for electricity, while achieving a 50 per cent reduction in the carbon dioxide intensity of electricity produced," said SSE chief executive Ian Marchant. "Pumped storage can help us achieve this goal and, after 30 years, I believe is a technology whose time can come again."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, energy secretary Steven Chu announced that $32m of economic stimulus funding would be provided to help fund the modernisation of existing US hydroelectric plants.

"There is no one solution to the energy crisis, but hydropower is clearly part of the solution and represents a major opportunity to create more clean energy jobs," said Chu.

The Department of Energy said the funding would be made available to upgrade projects at both large and small-scale hydroelectric plants. It added that Secretary Chu was particularly interested in developing pumped storage technologies that would support solar and wind energy projects by allowing energy to be stored.

Judge overturns MySpace bullying conviction

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-07-03T00:00:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Friday 3 July 2009 at 00:00:00

Mother could be cleared of criminal charges in suicide case

A US judge has moved to overturn the conviction of a Missouri woman accused of bullying a teenager who later committed suicide.

District Judge George Wu has ruled that Lori Drew was not guilty of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, overturning an earlier jury decision that convicted Drew on three misdemeanour counts of unauthorized access to a computer.

The 50 year-old housewife from Missouri was accused of bullying 13 year-old Megan Meier, a former friend of Drew's daughter, through social networking site Myspace.

According to prosecutors, Drew created an account for a fictional teenage boy named 'Josh.' The fake account was then used to flirt with Meier. After conducting a brief online relationship with the girl, 'Josh' then ended the relationship and began to taunt Meier, who later took her own life.

Shortly after Meier's suicide, Drew was brought up on both felony and misdemeanour charges of illegally accessing a computer. A jury in Los Angeles acquitted Drew of the felony counts, but returned a guilty verdict on the three misdemeanour charges.

The case raised a heated debate over how cyberbullying cases on the internet should be handled, both in terms of what charges can be filed and what jurisdiction local authorities can hold over online activites.

Judge Wu appeared to echo those concerns in his decision. According to the Los Angeles Times, Wu stated in his ruling that by bringing criminal charges against Drew, prosecutors were equating any violation of a site's terms and conditions with a crime.

"Is a misdemeanor committed by the conduct which is done every single day by millions and millions of people?" Wu was quoted as saying.

"If these people do read [the terms of service] and still say they're 40 when they are 45, is that a misdemeanor?"

Oracle launches Fusion Middleware 11g

Rosalie Marshall — 2009-07-02T18:36:00.000Z

Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 18:36:00

New version integrates with Oracle's SOA, WebLogic and identity management products

Oracle launched Fusion Middleware 11g to UK customers today at an event in London, after making initial announcements about the release in the US on Wednesday.

The updated platform is being marketed by the firm as the first complete middleware solution on the market.

Oracle president Charles Phillips said the IT industry had never really defined the middleware category.

“Companies tend to specialise in different middleware components, like business intelligence or data management and most of these components are proprietary,” he said.

“We said these components are all related in our mind and so middleware should be a related suite of products that supports applications. It is the level where application standards are defined, such as how applications are deployed or their security processes."

The new Fusion release contains integration with products elsewhere in Oracle’s portfolio, such as the Oracle SOA Suite, WebLogic Suite, WebCenter Suite and Identity Management software.

A new set of developer tools are part of the WebLogic Suite update, which is aimed at allowing enterprises to deploy reliable applications more quickly and at a lower cost.

“We are providing developers with all the features they need to build applications in a single environment to enhance their productivity,” said Thomas Kurian, Oracle Fusion Middleware senior vice president.

Customers have a choice between the JDeveloper Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which allows them to build applications across application servers, or the Eclipse IDE, which allows them to integrate with open-source products.

Other new features include Fusion Middleware Gridlink for Oracle Real Application Clusters that optimises integration between database clustering and application server clustering to enable improved performance in clustered architectures at a low cost.

Businesses wanting to upgrade to WebLogic Suite 11g from Oracle Application Server 10g can use the Fusion Middleware Upgrade Tool for Java EE.

Furthermore, the availability of SOA Suite 11g in Fusion will simplify application development because of its modular infrastructure, Oracle said.

New capabilities in the updated SOA Suite include Native SCA Designer, which contains drag-and-drop features and holds a composite application blueprint; and the integration of what Oracle calls an Event Driven Network to enable the development of applications that respond to events in real time.

New collaboration features have also been added to Fusion Middleware though the integration of WebCenter Suite 11g.

The suite has been extended with WebCenter Spaces, which enables business users to create ad hoc web-based communities while remaining in a Microsoft Office environment; and WebCenter Services, which allows users to integrate tagging, linking and RSS feeds with their enterprise applications.

Additionally Oracle Composer will allow users to customise portals and composite applications with social computing services.

Finally, the next edition of Identity Management 11g has new features Fusion users will have access to, such as Deployment Accelerators and a modern unified user interface.

Kurian explained how the “now full suite of products” would work together.

“Customers can build applications on 11g using our enhanced developer tools and then use the SOA foundation to ensure components are consistent with each other,” he said.

“The applications can be deployed in a cloud style environment and highly secured with the identity management capabilities."

Phillips explained the aim of the release was to make it easier for customers to tamper with applications sitting on top of the middleware, or the underlying infrastructure, without the changes affecting each other.

“What we’re trying to do is change the way people think of enterprise computing. The key issue we’re trying to solve is the complexity issues and all the dependencies between different levels of the architecture,” said Phillips.

Phone tax not enough for full broadband rollout

Daniel Robinson and Dave Bailey — 2009-07-02T18:05:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson and Dave Bailey, V3.co.uk, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 18:05:00

BT says proposed Digital Britain levy will not fund 100 percent fibre coverage

BT has said that a proposed 50p per month levy on phone landlines will not provide enough funds to cover the entire UK with fibre-optic broadband. However, the company is prepared to guarantee a 15Mbit/s service where fibre-optic is available.

At a briefing to discuss the next phase of BT's fibre-optic rollout today, BT strategy and portfolio group director Liv Garfield said that the levy, proposed in Lord Carter's Digital Britain report last month, would probably not provide enough funds to deliver fibre-optic broadband to the entire country.

"There's a billion pounds on offer here, but the devil's in the detail about which areas will get funded," she explained.

"If you're going from 55 to 85 per cent, then I can see that that could be delivered. I can see a way to get to 80 to 85 per cent with that kind of money, but we will struggle to get to 100 per cent – in fact it would be impossible to get to 100 per cent," she added.

However, in answer to a query regarding service level agreements (SLAs), Openreach managing director for next-generation access David Campbell said the company will guarantee 15Mbit/s, and take steps to remedy the situation if the service delivered falls below this.

Traditionally, carriers have declined to offer service level guarantees on broadband connections, leaving smaller companies to choose consumer-grade broadband offerings or opt for more costly services backed by an SLA.

Dell ordered to honour £9 monitors

Andrea-Marie Vassou — 2009-07-02T17:14:00.000Z

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeractive, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 17:14:00

Taiwan consumer protection body steps in after website pricing error - talks continue

Dell has been ordered to honour an online pricing error that gave Taiwanese consumers 19in LCD monitors for only £9 (NT$500).

The pricing mistake was posted on its Taiwanese website at 11pm.

According to Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission, news of the error spread around the internet and during the eight-hour period before the company pulled the advertisement 26,000 people placed orders for nearly 140,000 displays.

The Commission claims it received 471 complaints after Dell corrected the price to £90 (NT$4,800). In a statement it has ordered the company to honour the original listed price and sell the monitors for the advertised £9.

"If Dell fails to respond to this directive properly and concretely, then we will consider seeking legal alternatives," the Commission said.

Dell has apologised for the pricing error and claims it will be "offering reasonable discounts to the orders received under the wrong price," though it claims it's still negotiating with Taiwanese authorities on a final settlement.

Bing searches to include Twitter results

David Neal — 2009-07-02T17:09:00.000Z

David Neal, V3.co.uk, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 17:09:00

Microsoft begins rollout of new service with small sample of "prominent" Twitterers

Microsoft has announced a new feature for its Bing search service, which will allow users to receive information on Twitter posts.

The new service generates results from thousands of "carefully selected" Twitter users, according to Microsoft, including its own employees, search experts, bloggers and personalities such as Al Gore.

"Today we are unveiling an initial foray into integrating more real-time data into our search results, starting with some of the more prominent and prolific Twitterers from a variety of spheres," wrote Sean Suchter, general manager at Microsoft's Search Technology Center, in a blog post.

"This includes tweets from folks from our own search technology and business sphere, like Danny Sullivan or [technology columnist] Kara Swisher, as well as those from spheres of more general consumer appeal like Al Gore or [American Idol host] Ryan Seacrest."

Suchter added that the service currently offers a small sample of Twitter users, but will soon be extended.

"We are not indexing all of Twitter at this time, just a small set of prominent and prolific Twitterers to start. We picked a few thousand people, based primarily on their follower count and volume of tweets," he said.

Twitter results will not appear automatically, but will require specific search terms, such as 'Kara Swisher Twitter', 'Kara Swisher Tweets' or '@karaswisher'.

However, V3.co.uk tried all of these variants and had no success with Twitter results, reaffirming comments posted in response to Suchter's blog that the addition to Bing has not yet reached the UK.

Microsoft has so far been unable to provide V3.co.uk with a UK launch date for the Twitter service. UK users are also still awaiting a full release of Bing; at present it is only available as a beta version.

VIP Computers takes on Sanyo TVs, cameras and projectors

Fleur Doidge — 2009-07-02T16:59:00.000Z

Fleur Doidge, CRN, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:59:00

Wide range of peripherals made available to Cheshire region

Components and peripherals distributor VIP Computer Centre has signed up Sanyo for its LCD TVs, digital cameras and projectors.

Phil Brown, Sanyo product manager at VIP, said projectors were a new area for the Cheshire distributor and some good margin could be earned from some interesting products.

“The Xacti range of dual cameras combines the benefits of digital still cameras and camcorders in a single unit, allowing users to simultaneously and seamlessly move from taking photos to videos,” he said.

Dual, waterproof dual, and compact HD dual cameras are included, incorporating a slideshow feature that lets users view photos and videos without switching modes.

Projectors include ultraportables and units for high-end fixed deployment.

In LCD TVs, Sanyo offers 19in to 52in versions in HD or Full HD, some with integrated DVD playback.

Ian Aitken, distribution sales manager at Sanyo, said competition was getting tougher in the projector market especially.

“In an increasingly tough UK market, our competition continues to change the shape of their business," he said. "In reaction to this our route to market in the UK must also evolve.”

“We see the new relationship with VIP as a chance to expand into incremental markets – not just in projectors but chiefly across our new range of dual HD cameras and fully specified LCD TVs.”

MoD spends £230m more on Bowman communications system

Gareth Morgan — 2009-07-02T16:56:00.000Z

Gareth Morgan, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:56:00

Future-proofing and maintenance deals signed with General Dynamics

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed two deals with General Dynamics UK, together worth £231m, to upgrade the armed forces' Bowman military communications system.

One contract, known as Capability Release, covers the update and refresh of the Bowman digital radio system over its lifetime to reflect advances in technology.

The other deal provides longer-term technical support, including repair and field services.

“Bowman has been used successfully in Iraq and Afghanistan, where secure, faster communications and data exchange is saving lives on the front line. It is a key element of a comprehensive suite of communications systems to provide a robust network that allows commanders to exercise command and control effectively," said Quentin Davies, minister for defence equipment and support.

“These contracts are testament to our work with industry which allows us to rapidly adapt to technological advances and the evolving operational demands of our front-line troops.”

General Dynamics won the £2.4bn contract to build the Bowman system, after the MoD terminated its original deal with the Archer consortium.

The Bowman system has been installed in more than 13,000 British Army vehicles, together with headquarters, ships, and helicopters. The MoD recently purchased an additional 2,139 radios, with an option for a further 437, to meet the demands of current operations and their associated training needs.

Public sector spending watchdog the National Audit Office has previously been critical of the MoD's procurement practices, which it said had contributed to delays in getting the Bowman system fully operational.

BT Engage bags BSG’s product supply business

Doug Woodburn — 2009-07-02T16:56:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:56:00

Three-year outsourcing deal could boost BT Engage’s annual turnover by more than £20m

BT Engage IT is taking over Business Systems Group’s (BSG’s) £20m-a-year product supply business.

London-based HP Gold partner BSG was acquired by healthcare IT services firm Advanced Computer Software (ACS) for £15.5m in June.

But following a strategic review, ACS has decided it wants BSG to focus on managed services and has hived off its product supply business to BT Engage IT via a three-year outsourcing deal.

26 BSG employees will transfer to BT Engage IT, which is the midmarket reseller arm of BT, as part of the deal.

In an email leaked to CRN, BT Engage IT sales director Nick Wiltshire revealed that BSG’s supply business is currently worth £20.5m annually.

“Our aim is to not only retain as much of the £20.5m per annum as possible, but to grow it by offering these new clients our extended portfolio and professional services,” he said.

“I believe this is a great piece of business for our company and who knows, maybe a model we can replicate in the future.”

ACS also expects to profit from the deal as BSG will receive a percentage of the gross margin achieved by BT each year, subject to a minimum of £0.5m per annum.

It added that the proceeds would be used to fuel its growth strategy.

Vin Murria, chief executive of ACS said in a statement: “[The] review quickly identified that BSG's core businesses of managed services and solutions will support ACS' long term strategy of organic and acquisition growth but that the infrastructure business is better served through a partnership with BT Engage IT.

“This agreement allows us to continue focusing on the growth of managed services whilst still supporting customers in their infrastructure needs.”

Ramesys geared towards further growth

Sara Yirrell — 2009-07-02T16:53:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell, CRN, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:53:00

Ambitious VAR embarks on aggressive growth plan for next three years

Bullish VAR giant Ramesys has revealed an ambitious three-year growth plan and is planning a further recruitment drive later this year to cope with demand.

Most companies will see business dip slightly in response to the slower summer months, but the education specialist has revealed it is in its busiest period yet, helping schools get ready for September openings, as a result of its involvement in the Building Schools for the Future and Academies Programme.

Mark Chambers, chief executive of Ramesys, said: “We are on track in 2009 for revenue growth of 27 per cent and a further 35 per cent in 2010. We have already recruited 54 staff in 2009, growing headcount 20 per cent to meet our summer demands and we will begin recruiting again later this year to meet the next set of delivery commitments from our £170m order book.”

The VAR will start new services in 16 schools and academies in September from 24 scheduled this year. A further 45 more services are planned for 2010.

Fay Heathcote, HR director at Ramesys, said: “Our summer delivery programme in 2009 is another step up for Ramesys, but we have been planning for this for the last nine months, and we know it will build year on year too.

“More than 50 new staff have joined us since January 2009 as predicted, taking our total staff number up towards 300. We have been able to attract some very good people very efficiently on the back of our long-term government funded contracts.”

PC makers under fire from Greenpeace

Andrea-Marie Vassou — 2009-07-02T16:35:00.000Z

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeractive, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:35:00

Slammed for broken promises over hazardous materials in PCs, but Apple and Nokia are praised

PC manufacturers have been criticised by Greenpeace for breaking their promises to reduce hazardous materials in their products.

“There are no excuses for backtracking, and no reason for these companies not to have PCs free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs),” Greenpeace said in its report.

The attack came as the environmental organisation launched its quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics, which judges PC manufacturers on their recycling efforts, power consumption and materials used in their products.

HP was singled out for postponing its 2007 commitment to phase out PVC and BFRs from its computer products (excluding its server and printer lines) from 2009 to 2011. It was also rapped for failing to put any PVC and BFC products on the market.

Dell and Lenovo also came under fire for failing to significantly reduce the amounts of toxic chemicals including PVC and BFRs from their products.

Dell was also criticised for completely dropping its plans to eliminate PVC plastic and BFRs from its products by the end of 2009.

Dell said it had dropped plans because there were "no viable alternatives for many of the components used in our products that include these chemicals."

However this has not appeased Greenpeace: “These substances are harmful throughout the entire lifecycle of a product; phase-out reduces pollution during the production and disposal of electronics and makes products capable of being recycled in a responsible manner,” it said.

“It's technically feasible, and consumers want it too, but above all the electronics industry needs to clean up urgently as a matter of principle.”

However, not all companies were in Greenpeace’s bad books. Apple was praised for creating its new computers, virtually free of PVC and completely BFR free.

Nokia remained top of the list for its voluntary take-back programme, which spans 84 countries, and for providing almost 5,000 collection points for end-of-life mobile phones.

Acer and Toshiba were also praised for ensuring their new products were " virtually free" of PVC plastic and BFRs.

Nokia secures top spot in green electronics ranking

BusinessGreen.com Staff — 2009-07-02T16:33:00.000Z

BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:33:00

Nintendo slammed again over poor toxics policy

Greenpeace has today released its quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics, again awarding top spot to mobile giant Nokia and slamming games console manufacturer Nintendo for its poor environmental record.

Nokia was singled out for praise as a result of its comprehensive plans to phase out toxic components and wide-ranging recycling programme, which features almost 5,000 phone recycling collection points worldwide. However, the lobby group also warned that its recycling rate of three to five per cent is "very poor" and advised the company to provide more information on how it calculates these figures.

The latest version of the long-running report paid particular attention to firms' green marketing claims, awarding points to companies that promise to improve the environmental performance of their products and operations, but docking points for those who fail to deliver on marketing promises.

As a result, HP, Dell and Lenovo all dropped in the rankings for failing to live up to public promises to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their computers by the end of 2009.

It noted that HP formally pushed back its phase-out of the chemicals to 2011, and ruled that Dell will fail to meet its 2009 deadline. It also accused Lenovo of "back-tracking" on its commitment to eliminate BFRs and PVC by the end of 2009.

Apple also dropped to 11th place from ninth, on the grounds that while it had some success in making products completely BFR-free and "virtually free of PVC" , it was still using "unreasonably high threshold limits for BFRs and PVC in products that are allegedly PVC-/BFR-free".

Microsoft also received a dressing down from the green lobby group for its " poor" eWaste policy.

In contrast, Samsung received plaudits for producing PVC-free LCD TVs and lowering the overall amount of toxins in its other products by significant amounts, and Sony Ericsson moved up from fifth place to third for improving its energy efficiency.

Nintendo, however, continued to languish at the bottom of the rankings despite securing extra points for switching to PVC-free internal wiring in its gaming consoles.

Access Accounting restructures and rebrands

Rachael Singh — 2009-07-02T16:32:00.000Z

Rachael Singh, Accountancy Age, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:32:00

The first company to produce carbon accounting software is restructuring to concentrate primarily on consulting work

Access Accounting, the financial software suppliers, will now primarily be focused on consulting in a restructure by its parent company, ATG, which is consolidating its subsidiaries.

ATG –Access Technology Group - has merged all five of its companies including Access Accounting, Armstrong Consultants and Asyst Solutions, the business technology providers, to create Access. The merged company, which made a total of 31 redundancies in the restructuring, has said it will now concentrate primarily on providing consulting services.

Alistair O'Reilly, previously group MD for Access Accounting and now CEO of Access Group, said: 'We’re well known for our accounting software but we also have a very strong consulting capability due to the acquisitions we’ve made, and this is backed by a broad-based business software portfolio.'

One of the critical changes taking place is the move for Access Accounting, the first company to include carbon emission reporting in its software, to be sold directly to customers. Previously the firm exclusively used resellers, however O'Reilly said Access will not compete directly with them following the restructure.

The restructure includes a ten year achievement plan. Included in the plan is the company's intention to grow turnover to over £100m by 2017, up from £18m in 2008 and £23m expected for 2009, and to reduce all 260 employees individual carbon footprints by 20% by 2020.

Access Accounting, Access Supply Chain, the business software suppliers, Armstrong Consultants and Asyst Solutions will combine into a single company - Access UK Ltd. Access Accounting Ireland will remain a separate trading business with all companies working under the same brand, Access.

Laplink provides remote PC access on smartphones

Daniel Robinson — 2009-07-02T15:28:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, V3.co.uk, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 15:28:00

Laplink Everywhere 5 includes Windows Mobile client to remotely access a PC

Laplink has unveiled version 5 of its Laplink Everywhere remote access tool, adding the ability to remotely search PCs, plus the ability to use a smartphone for remote access.

Available immediately, Laplink Everywhere 5 (LLE5) is a remote access tool similar to those offered by LogMeIn and Citrix Online's GoToMyPC, whereby users can remotely view and control any Windows PC with the host agent installed.

However, LLE5 adds the ability to search any remote computers and transfer files without having to dive into a full-screen remote control session.

"Only Laplink offers mobile access for searching a PC remotely - finding, viewing and even sending files. We think this sets Laplink Everywhere apart as the remote access solution of choice for mobile users," said Laplink chief executive Thomas Koll.

LLE5 also provides a separate client, Laplink Mobile, that provides one-click access to files and Outlook emails on the remote PC for users with Windows Mobile smartphones.

"Email on a smartphone is mainstream. Users want more. It's a natural next step to search an entire PC from the phone - to find old mail, filed mail, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, whatever - and open or email those files to someone else from a phone," said Koll.

Users can try out the full features of LLE5 free for 30 days, after which the software reverts to the Limited version that supports only remote search, email of results, and access to Internet Explorer favourites. The full features can be restored by purchasing LLE5 for $49.95 (£31) for a year's access.

Dell expands VAR managed services suite

Sam Trendall — 2009-07-02T15:25:00.000Z

Sam Trendall, CRN, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 15:25:00

PC vendor's new consultancy, support and services set is being launched to resellers across EMEA

PC vendor Dell is expanding its Managed Services Certified Practice Area with the rollout of its new services portfolio.

The range of services is targeted at enterprises, SMEs and the public sector and is split into three specialised areas. ProManaged Services is a cloud-optimised platform designed to streamline businesses' IT processes.

ProConsult Services is a consultancy-based offering designed to help firms make rapid return on investment through greater IT efficiency. ProSupport Services is a support model allowing IT departments to tailor support packages for each individual user and asset.

The ProManaged suite will provide services around elements of IT infrastructure: distributed device management; remote infrastructure monitoring; and vulnerability scanning and reporting.

The full set of services is being launched across EMEA, initially only in English, with other languages to follow later in 2009. Dell's Partner Direct channel programme will incorporate the portfolio in its Managed Services Certified Practice Area.

The programme will give VARs access to the vendor's monitoring and management platforms and more than 200 US resellers have already signed up. Outside the Dell Certified channel, Registered resellers will be able to sell the full ProManaged line-up if they enrol in a training course.