Comms Dealer

Dell has rolled out enhancements to its PartnerDirect programme and a new loyalty programme for all partners working with its distributors.

The move is part of Dells' strategy to incentivise its channels to work with distribution and includes modifications to the EMEA rebate structure and events throughout the year.

Following the changes, registered partners working with distributors will for the first time be able to access incentives, competency training courses, rewards and customer support, all of which were previously only open for resellers working directly with Dell.

All partners now have the ability to become a Dell Registered Partner through a simplified registration and on-boarding process, providing them with access to the Dell PartnerDirect portal where they will find training courses, sales enablement tools, marketing resources, deal registration, campaign materials and ongoing information from Dell.

"We are always looking for new ways to reward our partners and continue to expand our working relationship," said Ralf Jordan, executive director, Broadline Distribution EMEA, Dell. "This is why we have extended the benefits available to registered partners working through distributors."

Skyscape Cloud Services has announced the availability of OpenStack powered services to fully leverage the capabilities of its next-generation cloud platform.

Skyscape has chosen to deploy OpenStack in order to support its UK public sector customers who have to comply with government policy which states open standards must be used when procuring ICT and delivering any new ICT solutions to ensure all government ICT assets are inter-operable.

Skyscape is dedicated to UK public sector organisations and its Cloud Native Infrastructure (powered by OpenStack) is designed specifically to support these organisations as they transition to digital and embrace an agile DevOps/WebOps culture to develop cloud native applications which improve public services, increase agility, drive innovation and reduce costs.

OpenStack has established itself as the open standard cloud platform on which developers are able to build agile and elastic digital solutions, offering portability between on premise, private and public cloud environments.

As OpenStack supports multi-cloud deployments, it removes any reliability on a single provider. This means UK public sector organisations no longer need to be 'locked-in' to proprietary platforms, instead they can manage pools of computing resource spread across different platforms as one and fully embrace cloud with maximum efficiency.

"We believe that OpenStack complements our existing platform and assurance capabilities to provide an end-to-end solution for the delivery of cloud services to further assist the UK public sector in its digital transformation," said Simon Hansford, CEO of Skyscape Cloud Services.  

Welsh hospital patients can witness their country's bid for a place in the Euro 2016 final following Daisy Group's deployment of free Internet access points at Cardiff & Vale NHS Trust.

Wales versus Portugal on July 6th will be streamed via the Internet to screens at patients' bedsides as well as to connected devices in public areas throughout the hospital.

Daisy Group already supports a range of technology at the Trust, from telephony to digital data management.

The usual 600 Wi-Fi access points in wards, offices and public spaces is being expanded to 1,800 to cope with expected demand for live footage of the match.

Extra Daisy engineers will be despatched to the Cardiff site to ensure an uninterrupted connection.

A spokesman for Daisy Group said: "The whole nation has turned Welsh for tomorrow night and we couldn't bear to think that anyone in hospital in Cardiff would miss this momentous moment.

"The Trust is taking steps to ensure that everyone will be able to log on and stream the game live from the TV to their bedside monitor, laptop, tablet or phone.

"As you can imagine, demand is likely to be very high so we have made sure that we are providing the relevant support to the process."

Former RAF squadron leader Paul Diamond has joined Entanet as Chief Operating Officer with a remit to drive efficiencies and quality assurance.

Diamond said: "Having celebrated its 20th year in business earlier in 2016, Entanet is now looking to achieve significant financial growth and operational maturity.

"We have a great team in place and I'm excited to have been given the opportunity to help Entanet embrace continuous improvement, deliver more value to its channel partners and achieve its full potential."

Entanet's Chief Executive Elsa Chen stated: "Entanet is now at a key stage in its evolution as a business, and future-proofing our organisational strength is critical to fulfilling our long-term strategic ambitions.

"We see some exciting prospects ahead and Paul's wealth of experience in driving operational development in the hi-tech sector brings renewed energy and momentum to Entanet.

"His appointment demonstrates our commitment to continue investing in the quality of our services and support, and in driving innovation and new opportunities for our partners in a rapidly-changing digital landscape."

Diamond spent 19 years as a Communications Engineering Officer with the RAF before joining Airbus in 2001.

Prior to joining Entanet he was VP at Rapiscan Systems, a global supplier of security inspection solutions. Diamond played a key role in driving annual revenues from $46m to $200m in under three years.

Data backup, recovery and business continuity firm Datto has opened a new EMEA HQ in Reading which will house up to 150 staff, plus a dedicated onsite Partner Experience Centre and onsite pub called The Blue Ram.

Datto has also opened new data centres in Iceland and Germany and signed distribution deals in Spain and Greece.

In the UK, Datto has added industry expertise in the shape of Trent Machett who has taken up the role of UK&I Sales Director. Chris Tate has been appointed Business Development Director for EMEA.

CIF has launched a number of new membership level programmes that reflect the differing business needs of cloud providers no matter what their size, scale or product and service offering.

The new Industry Membership Programme is segmented into three levels: Cloud start-ups (with a 12-month subscription subsidised by CIF); Smaller Cloud Service Providers and consultancies; and Vendors and Cloud Aggregators.

Alex Hilton, CEO, stated: "The cloud marketplace has changed dramatically since we launched the Membership Programme back in 2010.

"In that time we have seen a significant rise in the number of companies offering cloud services from small born-in-the-cloud start-ups, through to aggregators, Managed Service Providers and specialist cloud consultancies. As a result, our Membership Programme now addresses this changing eco-system."

A team of golfers from Nimans completed four rounds at Alderley Edge Golf Club in one day to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

They teed off at 5am and played for 16 hours non-stop, waking 25 miles and hitting circa 350 shots each to complete the challenge.

Darren Wilson, Gavin Elly, Lee Fletcher and Chris Widocks raised thousands for the charity.

"It was a gruelling day but we were determined not to be beaten," said Wilson. Sinking my final put on the final hole was such a great feeling.

"I have had personal contact with Macmillan Cancer Support and what they do is priceless. So raising funds to help so many more people feel special is the least we can do."

Anyone wishing to support the golfers can donate at: https://www.justgiving.com/THATSANUGLYFOURBALL

Cloud computing adoption is not universally driven by the need to reduce IT costs, and neither is it causing a widespread reduction in the size of IT teams, according to new research released by Six Degrees Group (6DG).
 
Contrary to the industry marketing hype, the study, conducted for 6DG by IT industry analyst firm Freeform Dynamics, revealed that only 15% of respondents were motivated purely by cost savings when adopting cloud technology. 31% said balancing cost management and value was their priority, while 23% were concerned primarily with value. 
 
Cloud is actually being delivered against a wide range of objectives, from responsiveness to change, through management of service levels and IT related risks, to making better use of external resources and generally getting the most from suppliers. IT departments using cloud more extensively are also refocusing internal resources away from routine tasks towards more specialist skills and tasks that enhance business performance.
 
Reports of cloud-driven shrinkage of IT teams are exaggerated. Over the last three years, only 6% of respondents reported some decrease in the size of their IT teams. In contrast, over 70% reported their IT teams had seen 'some' increase or a 'significant' increase in staff levels.
 
Over the next three years, while respondents are expecting a net increase in the size of IT teams overall, the growth rates are slowing (45% indicating growth, with only 7% within this expecting a significant increase). 
 
However, there is a shift in the profile of IT teams, which coincides with the adoption of cloud computing. The number of respondents declaring that at least half of their IT teams are made up of 'generalists' falls dramatically as the use of cloud goes up. This suggests that the need for generalist IT staff to take care of routine operations (provisioning, patching, etc), decreases rapidly with cloud adoption. Emphasis is switching to more specialist skills such as architecture, design, security, information management and line-of-business applications.
 
"These mythbusting findings show that cloud adoption and its impact is a much more sophisticated spectrum of cause and effect than many had previously thought," commented Campbell Williams, Group Strategy and Marketing Director at Six Degrees.

"At the same time we are also seeing increased reliance on cloud service providers, which means more will be expected of them. Almost all of the respondents said that providers who aggregate multiple services into a single integrated solution have a key role to play. For their part, service providers need to understand how to engage with highly-skilled in-house teams much more effectively than many have done so in the past.
 
"There are two key, inter-linked, correlations here: firstly, the most successful IT departments are using cloud infrastructure and platforms more extensively; and secondly, they are leveraging this to be more specialised to help create better business outcomes in an increasingly digital world. It is critical that a cloud journey doesn't just enable delivery of the same workloads in a new way, it must facilitate transformative technology adoption to power new working practices and business models."
 
The research confirms the assertion that cloud is becoming an integral part of IT delivery, with momentum continuing to build. Over 96% of respondents indicated some level of use (20% extensive, 52% significant, 24% modest).

And cloud adoption levels are increasing steadily in 56% of respondents and rapidly for 18%. Less than 1.5% reported any level of decrease in their use of cloud.
 
Tony Lock, Distinguished Analyst at Freeform Dynamics, commented: "In the early part of the cloud market, providers often delivered their services in a largely hands-off manner. This may remain appropriate in the context of some requirements, but today, where converged services make more sense, customers are making a broader commitment to individual providers. Those providers must be willing to get involved with the customer's environment. The spirit to strive for is one of a peer-to-peer partnership."

Milton Keynes has been named as CityFibre's latest Gigabit City project.

CityFibre will be making over 160km of pure fibre network available to businesses, schools and colleges throughout the city via its city launch partner dbfb and education partner Exa Networks.

Milton Keynes is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK with employment growth expected to hit 4.7 percent this year. It is also one of the recognised leaders in the developing and promoting of smart city technology with initiatives such as MK:Smart, and the development of a 'MK Data Hub' to collect and manage city-wide data in partnership with the Open University.

But Milton Keynes suffers from internet speeds well below the government's defined measure of superfast broadband.

As a Milton Keynes Gigabit City launch partner, Northampton-based service provider dbfb will be first to market with ultra-fast Internet services for businesses.

Delivered over the pure fibre network, businesses will be able to access gigabit speed services up to 100 times faster than the UK's average speed. dbfb and CityFibre will together be making a significant investment in Milton Keynes.

The future-proof network will also be made available to schools and colleges in Milton Keynes, via CityFibre's educational sector launch partner Exa networks.

Brian Kingston, MD of dbfb, said: "It's undebatable that having consistently fast access to the Internet is crucial to driving productivity and the bottom-line. Connecting to a pure fibre network will make it easy to harness business access solutions like VoIP and cloud services that may otherwise be unavailable."

Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, added: "Despite leading the way in smart city thinking, this city is yet another example of those still strangled by poor digital connectivity. Our pure fibre network, now available to businesses through our partners at dbfb, will catapult Milton Keynes to be alongside some of the best connected cities in the world."

Broadband cable network transmission technology provider Technetix has raised £7.5m in strategic funding by new investor Liberty Global Ventures.

Technetix supplies headend and access transmission systems for fibre and HFC (hybrid fibre coax) networks.

Paul Broadhurst, CEO of Technetix, said: "We are focused on delivering the next generation technology platforms to market which form a key part of our customers' networks allowing expansion, better efficiency while minimising total cost of ownership.

"The funding will assist in scaling our business in all areas to meet future growth"

Colin Buechner, MD Access Network of Liberty Global, added: "Liberty Global Ventures invests in companies that provide high strategic value to our markets. Technetix is a key partner to Liberty Global delivering expertise and technology know-how."