Comms Dealer

By Anton Le Saux, Head of Connectivity and Partner Sales at O2 Telefónica UK: The IoT provides 'a way of boosting productivity, of keeping us healthier, making transport more efficient, reducing energy needs and making our homes more comfortable', according to a report by The Government Office for Science.

This is certainly a belief that we share and have supported by working with a number of local authorities, offering advice around how to deliver effective services through digital expertise. The IoT is now beginning to make a real impact at local Government level, as more councils begin to adopt the technology and apply it to real life challenges.

One recipient of O2's expertise and advice is Newcastle City Council, which launched its SelfTrav app. The app uses tracking technology to help young people with learning disabilities to travel safely on public transport. The idea was to support the young people involved who want to be able to travel normally, without being conspicuous.

The app empowers them to travel safely and independently, without standing out from the crowd as most young people carry smartphones. The development of the app revolutionises how the council is able to deliver special educational needs and disabilities transport.

The applications for m2m technology in local Government are enormously diverse and can touch on anything from smart lighting and parking to measuring passenger journeys on public transport, traffic flow systems and energy management. There are councils that have struggled to understand how the IoT can be put to work to their advantage, but as more councils adopt the technology and knowledge is shared, the benefits will be widely felt.

(anton.lesaux@telefonica.com - partnersdigital.telefonica.com)

By Andy Grant, Managing Director, Bowan Arrow: Marketing planning is often discussed by partners and vendors but sometimes the process is not taken that seriously or documented.

Many vendors have MDF budgets available for partners to create a credible marketing plan. Partners and vendors already have an agreed business plan with revenue targets and objectives, so why not extend that to a joint marketing strategy? Vendors usually supply a simple template.

A major element of the partnership is the marketing plan. This should concentrate on creating awareness, consideration and action for target contacts in key markets. The marketing plan should include timelines and costs for the major activities that have been discussed and need to be executed.

Partners and vendors should not try to boil the ocean. I always advise them to include no more than four joint activities for a calendar year. Both parties need to be realistic and the activities need to be achievable to create real results.

The partner should insist that the vendor makes their PR team available, and their corporate reach for the initial and ongoing communications, but the actual integrated campaigns should be led by the partner with the vendor's support.

Partners should plan integrated campaigns that have more than one element. Sending a simple direct mail letter and hoping for hundreds of responses will not create leads. If you plan an activity with a number of touchpoints you will have taken the correct steps towards channel marketing success.

Zayo Group Holdings has closed its 98.8 million euro acquisition of Viatel 's infrastructure and non-Irish carrier and high bandwidth business from the Digiweb Group, a full service telecommunications and managed services operator, based in Dublin, Ireland.

The acquisition adds an 8,400 kilometre fibre network across eight countries to Zayo's European footprint, including 12 new metro networks, seven data centres and connectivity to 81 on-net buildings. The Viatel businesses to be acquired are highly aligned with Zayo's existing product and customer set, including a higher proportion of dark fibre revenue.

The new capability significantly expands Zayo's global capabilities, providing Pan-European infrastructure and connectivity to key subsea cable systems, delivering traffic to and from North America, Asia and Africa.

The expanded network and infrastructure solutions are available immediately to Zayo and Viatel customers through their account representatives or via Tranzact, Zayo's innovative platform for purchasing and managing infrastructure at zayo.com/tranzact.

The suite of services available includes Dark Fibre, Wavelengths, Ethernet, IP, Data Centre and Cloud, across more than 92,000 miles, nearly 150,000 kilometres, of Zayo's high-performance network.

"The acquisition of Viatel's European network business strengthens our strategic position in Europe and provides customers with access to our fibre network and expanded connectivity to key international markets," said Dan Caruso, Zayo chairman and CEO. "Because of the complementary nature of the acquisition, we will begin cross-selling our full suite of services to both Zayo and Viatel customers immediately."

Entanet CEO Elsa Chen has been shortlisted as a finalist in a further award programme recognising female technology leaders and their valuable contribution to the industry.

Chen has been named as a finalist in the category of Business Leader of the Year in the Women in IT Awards 2016, organised by business technology magazine, Information Age.

This latest shortlisting follows an earlier finalist nomination in the PCR Woman of the Year Awards and a series of company award wins throughout the year, including the Comms Business Award for Wholesale Service Provider of the Year- Large, ISPA Award for Best SME Business Broadband and CRN Sales & Marketing Award for Best Vendor Account Management Team.

Chen said: "It's an honour to be shortlisted for this award and it's recognition of the strong results achieved by the whole Entanet team.

"We've had a very successful 2015 with significant year-on-year growth, the launch of a number of innovative new tools and systems, onboarding of several key strategic relationships and, of course, success in a number of award programmes. We strive to continue this success into 2016 and beyond with the continued support of our loyal channel partners."

Following another strong year for cybersecurity players, FBR analyst Dan Ives stated: "Our recent field checks heading into 2016 suggest 'robust' deal momentum as enterprises and governments across the board upgrade to next-generation security platforms/software.

"Based on our conversations with channel partners/customers over the last few weeks, closure rates look to be trending higher year over year, with seven-figure deals markedly up in the pipeline. This speaks to the massive firewall refresh that is underway, with hot areas of security (next-generation firewall, e-mail security, mobile/cloud) as the main beneficiaries."

He expects next-gen firewall leader Palo Alto Networks to be a major beneficiary.

Others expected to benefit include firewall/security software vendor Check Point, privileged account security software leader CyberArk, unified threat appliance leader Fortinet, e-mail/compliance security software firm Proofpoint (NASDAQ:PFPT), and Web app firewall and data security software firm Imperva.

Ives is less bullish on malware and endpoint-protection hardware and software provider FireEye, citing execution and product-related headwinds. His note comes three weeks after Citi reported a CIO survey pointed to strong enterprise security spend. FireEye (upgraded), Palo Alto, Splunk, and Imperva were favorably mentioned.

Former Fujitsu CTO Jon Wrennall has joined Advanced Computer Software Group as new CTO.

Wrennall brings 20 years experience to his new role. He spent the last five years as CTO of Fujitsu UK and Ireland, overseeing 1,200 architects and driving change across all areas of the business.

During his time there, the company, which has an annual turnover of £1.7 billion, grew from a largely public sector client base to nearly 50% private sector.

Prior to moving to Fujitsu Wrennall served as Chief Information Officer, Transformation Director and SIRO at the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

Before joining the VOA, he served as Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs' first Chief Technology Officer, leading the integration of the former Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise organisations.

At both organisations, he drove savings of £600 million and led IT and business transformations that have helped shape how UK businesses interface with the public sector.

Wrennall said: "I cannot think of a better time to join Advanced. The business is going through an exciting period of growth and is investing heavily in software development, so I see this as a massive opportunity to build on the broad set of products and services."

Gordon Wilson, CEO, Advanced Computer Software Group, added: "Jon brings experience to the role as well as a passion for technology and proven leadership skills, which will further enhance our products and take us closer to our goal of becoming a world class business."

Wrennall is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the British Computer Society, founding Fujitsu Fellow and member of the Advisory Board for leading application intelligence company, AppDynamics.

The traditional fixed line and mobile carrier's days could be numbered if the roll out of a new ‘Global Mesh' project by the automotive industry goes to plan.

The project could see the delivery of about 100 million wireless access points per annum in new cars across the planet.

Nathan Stewart from IT and Cloud solutions provider Total Group, who is technical lead for the initiative set for launch in 2021, told Comms Dealer: "Within two years of launch the automotive industry will have more coverage and bandwidth than the existing copper, fibre and mobile networks combined. They will overnight become a super carrier."

It's expected that by 2022 the automotive ‘Global Mesh' will provide 10Gb wireless bandwidth across the globe anywhere within a few kilometres of a modern car.

Stewart says the network will be self-building, self-upgrading, self-powering and, as an infrastructure investment model, existing carriers will not be able to compete.

"Every new car will have an access point. The mesh will have complete global wireless coverage and visibility of over 10 billion devices and approximately six billion people," he said.

"By 2021 we expect that the access points will be ratified at 802.11ax standard or better, providing multiple gigabit bandwidth over many kilometres by 2023.

If the project comes to fruition it could have a huge impact on the existing telecommunications industry. Facebook and Google have similar plans for global wireless coverage. Stewart believes it will change network provision paradigms and will push ICT resellers into completely new business models.

"A free fast global wireless network could be disruptive for personal, residential and SME line rental and connectivity but we think enterprise connectivity will be slow adopters.

"Existing carriers will very likely leverage the network and data products will be available to resellers and distributors.

"I suspect that for the reseller community revenue will shift from providing lines and connectivity to providing solutions, security, data, IT services and marketing products.

"If the network is freely provided the data rights and ability to leverage big data and marketing influence increases.

"By 2022 a further three billion people and 10 billion devices are expected to start using the internet. A great opportunity awaits resellers that adapt and adopt new solutions and prepare to leverage the user and IoT explosion.

"The ability to leverage and profit from free wireless is well proven in the retail and hospitality space and resellers will need plan for how similar models can work on a global basis," added Stewart.

Chess Telecom's acquisition strategy has been boosted by a new £50m finance facility from Barclays. Recent acquisitions have expanded Chess' reach into the cloud, data and hosted space and include IRW Systems, Parachute IT, elbillz, Integra ICT, Avenir Telecoms and The CRM Business. The new deal will enable Chess to refinance its existing facilities and bolster its war chest for future M&A activity.

The facility will also fund a management incentive scheme via a new share ownership plan.
 
Richard Btesh, Director at Chess, commented: "The funding received from Barclays demonstrates the success of our strategy of acquiring small to mid-sized telecoms businesses and our move towards the cloud, data and hosted space."
 
The deal was arranged by Barclays in Manchester led by Richard Faulkner, Relationship Director for Technology, Media and Telecoms, Glenn Clarke and Ed Hastrop, Debt Finance.
 
Faulkner said: "Our industry focus and understanding of the telecoms sector has enabled us to structure a finance solution that fits well with Chess's acquisition strategy.

"We have a dedicated northern TMT team and I am confident the funding from Barclays will allow Chess continued growth and profitability and to maximise their potential."

As part of a deal declared to be an expansion of the companies' 'long-term strategic relationship', AT&T is 'transitioning' its managed app and managed hosting services unit to IBM.

IBM will also acquire equipment and floor space access in AT&T data centres supporting the business.

Once the deal closes, IBM will deliver the managed app/hosting services currently provided by AT&T. The offerings will be aligned with IBM's cloud services portfolio.

The move follows a Q3 in which IBM's global tech services revenue fell 10% yr/yr to $7.9bn, and its global business services revenue 13% to $4.2bn, amid cloud and forex pressures.

The company is already a notable player in the managed app and hosting markets, its SoftLayer unit participates in the latter.

Within its Business Solutions segment, AT&T's fixed strategic services revenue (including hosting, Ethernet, cloud, VPN, and security services) rose 12.6% Y/Y in Q3 to $2.76bn. That helped offset an 8.7% drop in legacy voice/data service revenue to $4.5bn.

Red Hat shares rose strongly to a new high after Q3 results which, though below estimates and with a mixed FQ4 guidance showed growth in key sectors.

The Linux/middleware vendor saw its deferred revenue balance rise 14% yr/yr in FQ3 to $1.49bn, a slight pickup from FQ2's 13% growth. Subscription revenue rose 16% to $457m, and training/services revenue 8% to $66.1m.

Within subscriptions, infrastructure-related revenue (Linux and virtualization) rose 12% to $373m, while revenue related to app development and 'other emerging technologies offerings' (middleware, storage software, and cloud software) surged 37% to $84m.

"Our investments in technologies and partnerships continued to generate strong results as customers transform their IT infrastructure through the increasing adoption of open source technologies and cloud computing," stated Jim Whitehurst (below), President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Hat.

"During the third quarter, we strengthened our position in the open hybrid cloud by introducing new technologies and launching a strategic partnership with Microsoft and its Azure Cloud.

"Our initiatives are focused on enabling our customers to build, deploy and manage their applications across multiple environments and infrastructures." 

Red Hat ended FQ3 with $1.87bn in cash, and $729m in convertible debt.