Comms Dealer

Equinix has revamped its training and certification programme to offer two levels of certification targeted at managed service providers, network service providers, system integrators and solution providers.

Equinix added more than 350 partners in 2015 and the new changes to its channel engagement operation aim to build on this momentum.

Notable partners that have joined the global programme since its launch include Avant, Dimension Data, Hanu, KBQuest and VMtech.

Equinix has strategic partnerships with cloud service providers including AWS, Cisco, Google Cloud Platform, IBM SoftLayer, Microsoft Azure, NetApp, and Oracle.

Imago ScanSource's policy of nurturing home grown talent has again come to fruition with the appointment of Maryam Arbabi (pictured) as Head of Products and Marketing UK and Nick Waldeck as Head of Southern UK Sales

Arbabi joined the company over seven years ago as an Internal Account Manager on the sales team and worked her way up to Sales Manager for the south west region. 

Part of her remit was to implement marketing and sales promotion programmes for vendors and to run business growth campaigns in association with resellers.

Waldeck came to Imago ScanSource in 2005 working in the marketing department and has since held a number of roles including product management with responsibility for developing key manufacturers.

He later moved into a sales role and was named Top Sales Person of The Year before becoming Sales Manager for the south east area.

James Vickerage, VP for UK&I, said: "Maryam and Nick are two of the company's rising stars. Our strategy is to develop our best talent and to promote from within wherever possible."

The CBI is to make the economic case to remain in the EU having reaffirmed a strong member mandate in an independent survey by polling company ComRes.

The majority of CBI member companies, which together employ nearly 7 million people (about one third of private sector employees) believe that it would be in the best interests of their business and the wider UK economy to remain inside the EU.

The survey revealed 80% of CBI members believe that the UK remaining a member of the EU would be best for their business. Overall, 5% say it is in their firms' best interests for the UK to leave the EU, with 15% unsure.

Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, said: "The message from our members is resounding, most want the UK to stay in the EU because it is better for their business, jobs and prosperity.

"Walking away makes little economic sense and risks throwing away the many benefits we gain from being part of the EU.

"Our members tell us that having guaranteed access to a tariff-free market of 500 million people, and to more than 30 global trade deals covering 50 countries, are significant advantages that outweigh the frustrations.

"A minority of members want to leave the EU. We will continue to respect and reflect their views and campaign for EU reform to get a better deal for all businesses.

"However, most CBI members are unconvinced that alternatives to full membership would offer the same opportunities. We have yet to see those who seek to leave the EU present a compelling vision of what this would mean for jobs and growth.

"We will not align ourselves with any campaign. Though prosperity, jobs and future living standards matter to many people, we recognise there will be other considerations. It is not our place to tell people how to vote, but the CBI will play its role in making the economic case for remaining in the EU."

Cyber security VAD Exclusive Networks is growing its distribution agreement with BlackBerry into Benelux, DACH and the UK following successes in Australia and the Nordic region.

Exclusive Networks will now offer the full BlackBerry enterprise software portfolio as part of its services, which includes among others the recently introduced Good Secure EMM Suites by BlackBerry, a set of mobile security, management, productivity and collaboration offerings.

Barrie Desmond, COO at Exclusive Group, said: "This represents exciting new opportunities for the channel as customers strive to achieve maximum productivity and security for all their mobilised applications and data from a single platform."

Carl Wiese, President Global Sales at BlackBerry, added: "BlackBerry and Exclusive Networks have made a great team in Australia and the Nordics, and we're confident about extending our partnership across more territories."

plan.com just missed out on a semi-final place in KPMG's first seven-a-side charity soccer tournament on the Isle of Man in support of Wish Upon A Dream.

The charity grants wishes for sick and terminally ill children living on the island and in a show of support 12 teams battled to lift the trophy, including representations from PokerStars, SMP, Barclays, Appleby and Baker Tilly.

plan.com team captain and Marketing Manager Simon Jennings said: "The tournament was a great success with such a brilliant turn out of teams and local support. In this case, it wasn't just about winning."

Nimans is stocking the Polycom RealPresence Debut, a video conferencing and collaboration solution for small meeting rooms and huddle spaces.

Nimans' Head of Conferencing Sales, Ian Brindle, said: "Using Polycom's enhanced HD audio with NoiseBlock technology, audio is clear, distracting background noises are removed and voice quality sounds as real as being there.

"RealPresence Debut uses a specially-designed camera with a wide field of view and flexible pan and tilt adjustments, ideal for spaces that are sometimes wider than they are deep.

"Integrated stereo microphones are optimised to capture every voice equally in smaller spaces, or add an optional extension microphone for even greater pickup.

"The Polycom RealPresence Debut can be up and running within minutes."

The adoption of health monitoring devices will nearly treble by 2020, exceeding 70 million worldwide, up from an estimated 26 million this year. 

That's according to a new study by Juniper Research that says the use of monitoring devices will witness a swift rise as new entrants gain FDA (Food & Drug Administration) approval.

However, it highlights the need for new entrants to prove that their hardware is able to measure health indicators with the same accuracy as standard medical devices.

The research argues that greater consumer affinity with connected monitoring devices will in turn be accompanied by an upsurge in the adoption of mobile and cloud health platforms such as Apple Health and Google Fit.

Furthermore, it claims that the 'Big Data' collected by such monitoring devices presents a significant medium term opportunity for platforms such as IBM Watson Health Cloud.

These already offer greater insight into health information and enable more efficient decision making through data analytics.

The research also argued that with companies, such as Illumina, now mapping a large number of individuals' genomes, healthcare providers will increasingly have access to unique sets of genomic information.

This will offer the potential for healthcare providers to offer personalised plans based on that individual's genetic traits and susceptibility to diseases such as cancer, including treatments which have previously achieved positive results when delivered to patients with similar genomes.

Other findings from the research include: Heightened accuracy from the latest iteration of monitoring devices will lead to a fourfold increase in the number of individuals being monitored by 2020.

Interoperability with personal smartphone devices will add further value for the patient.??While the number of individuals using mHealth information services is expected to increase from 60 million this year to 150 million by 2020.

Growth is constrained by the lack of viable business models underpinning the operations in many developing markets.

Six Degrees Group (6DG) raised over £30k for charity WeSeeHope on its second annual ski trip, which forms part of its CSR programme called Six Degrees of Hope.

6DG hosted a party of 30 executives and friends in St Moritz, Switzerland, on the three day trip.

WeSeeHope supports orphans and other vulnerable children living in extreme poverty in southern and eastern Africa, and works with 26 local project partners in 222 communities.

Six Degrees of Hope has now raised over £330k for WeSeeHope in just four and a half years, with £100,000 raised alone in 2015.

To build on the fundraising activities so far this year two of the 6DG team will run the London Marathon in April, another will take part in the London2Brighton Challenge in May, and a 400km cycle across Malawi is on the fundraising map.

Alastair Mills, CEO of 6DG and Ambassador for WeSeeHope, stated: "This year's trip was the usual mix of great skiing and memorable apres-ski, with a fantastic group of like-minded friends and colleagues from the UK technology space.

"We had the added thrill of the St Moritz bobsleigh run, but even that was topped by the incredible generosity of our guests who together raised a remarkable £30k.

"That money will be spent wisely, helping to give new hope to young people in sub-Saharan Africa."

 Longer business cycles and the move to cloud alternatives have caused the global enterprise telephony and UC market to dip 1% in Q4 2015, and drop 5% for the full-year to $7.4bn.

According to IHS Technology's latest figures, north America notched up 6% growth for the year, while the rest of the world recorded an 11% fall.

Pure IP PBXs were the only segment to post year-over-year growth (6%), but it remains almost half the size of the hybrid segment.

"Though UC demand has been strong over the past two years, revenue came to a halt in 2015, falling 2%," said Diane Myers, Senior Research Director.

"The decline is attributable to pricing drops as more and more UC functionality is incorporated into PBX packages, the move of UC applications to the cloud and the general competitive environment."

IHS Technology's research also found that PBX line shipments were slightly down in 2015; and hybrid IP PBXs (which appeal to businesses that want to minimise upfront capital outlays on handsets) continue to dominate; and UC platform licenses grew 10% last year.

"As enterprises migrate to IP and UC solutions, the top PBX vendors remain in a battle to gain customers and hold onto existing ones," added Myers.

"Cisco led all vendors for the full year 2015 (35% share), followed by Avaya (17%). On the UC front, Microsoft continues to have strong sales, which it looks to carry over to the voice side."

Cloud DR specialist Druva has sharpened its focus on the UK channel and signed up two new partners, infrastructure and networking specialist LAN2LAN and service provider Oriium.

They will offer data protection and governance services for mobile and distributed data, including data hosted in the cloud such as Office 365.

Druva has also launched a dedicated partner portal for MSPs alongside a new management platform that runs converged data protection services for customers based on the public cloud.

Working with MSPs, Druva aims to offer data back-up and governance solutions using Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

"The focus is the public cloud with the likes of AWS and a concentration on expanding in UK&I, DACH, Nordics, Benelux and Iberia," said Rick Powles, Vice President EMEA at Druva.

"The channels are all different - some are cloud specialists, others are traditional resellers with growing MSP business, but there is no one vertical market.

"Some have offered disaster recovery and protection, but based on servers, and they have nothing for end users with tablets and phones.

"Druva has a strong mobile story and data protection requirements are evolving as companies make more use of cloud computing and employees seek to work where it suits them to be, rather than solely in the office.

"This means that traditional data protection tools are no longer fit for purpose.

"Providing a data availability and governance solution can help MSPs fill the gaps that are developing in their customers' data protection strategies. This is not just about protecting end points, apps should also be protected."

Powles plans to take the DR proposition to 'different markets by taking to different people', pointing out that it is not just the data centre manager who is the target, HR and finance departments are also in the frame.

This means that Druva's offering can be positioned on cost as well as coverage. It should be cheaper to run on AWS, he says, as well as appealing to the household names as customers who are already running it on AWS.