Comms Dealer

Cobweb Solutions has enhanced its participation in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program as a 2-Tier provider.

This extension allows Cobweb to sell services through the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program to resellers. This will expand cloud sales opportunities by enabling partners to provide direct billing, sell combined offers and services, as well as directly provision, manage and support the Microsoft Office 365 suite of products and services.

Cobweb provides an ecosystem that allows partners to deliver the benefits of their own expertise within a toolset that unleashes the power of the Microsoft Cloud.

"UK businesses, particularly SMBs and professional services firms, are showing tremendous interest in cloud technologies such as Office 365 and Windows Azure," said Ash Patel, Director of Business Transformation at Cobweb.

"Joining the Cloud Solution Provider program as an indirect 2 Tier provider allows us to build even stronger relationships with our partners and provide them with integrated cloud solutions for their customers."

Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft, added: "By joining the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program, Cloud Distributors will grow their Cloud ready channel, deepen customer relationships and expand business opportunities in the cloud."

Warwickshire County Council will use Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise solutions to roll out Wi-Fi in a number of its public sector buildings.

In addition to the corporate locations, over 150 schools have signed up to use the wireless network solution.

Many of the smaller schools have deployed Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Instant Access Point technology to deliver Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for them to pay additional controller charges.

To allow schools to make best use of new technology, the council has developed a new, separate and secure Internet-only wireless service called BYOND (Bring Your Own Network Device), enabling staff and pupils to download learning-based applications for their tablets and smartphones.

The service installed by Khipu Networks, a key business partner and winner of the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Global Partner of the Year Award, is currently available across 150 schools, 27 public libraries, 15 fire stations and 28 other sites including social services, corporate buildings and training centres.

The free public Wi-Fi service has also been rolled out to a number of independent community libraries across the county, enabling them to offer internet access as a local community service.

Claire Darling, Data Network Manager, Warwickshire County Council, said:
"The new solution allows us to provide powerful Wi-Fi access for staff to the corporate network as well as providing free public Internet facilities for staff and for the general public."

Steve Davey, Account Manager, ALE UK, added: "The implementations by Warwickshire County Council will dramatically improve public services through better communication and connectivity, allowing anyone, anywhere and at anytime to gain access to the network for their specific needs."

Cramlington-based cloud computing firm SITS Group has scooped its second accolade in the last month.

The company was named the fastest growing medium business of 2015 for companies with annual turnover of between £5m and £15m at the Ward Hadaway Fastest 50 Awards.

This annual event rewards the privately owned organisations in the north west region that have shown the strongest annualised sales growth over recent years.

SITS Group was also named in The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100.

Phil Cambers, Commercial Director, said: "Thanks to the dedication from our staff and clients we have increased our turnover year on year and look forward to growing the company further in 2016.

"The Fastest 50 award win and being shortlisted in the Tech Track 100 is testament to the hard work and loyalty from our staff and clients. We would like to thank our staff, customers and everyone involved with making SITS the success it is today."

VoIP Distributor ProVu is to become the star of its own film following its nomination for the SME of the Year Award in the Huddersfield Examiner Business Awards.

Filming was carried out by Manchester-based Flix Facilities at ProVu's offices in Huddersfield on 9th October and the final cut will be shown at the awards event taking place at Huddersfield's John Smith's Stadium on 12th November.

The shortlist announcement was revealed in the same week as the Comms National Awards in which ProVu is shortlisted for the Best Convergence Distributor award.

ProVu's MD Darren Garland (pictured) said: "The ProVu team enjoyed being part of the filming process. It was a fun morning for us all.

"It is a real honour to be shortlisted for both of these awards as it recognises our hard work in our specialist field as well as within our community."

Telefónica is to deliver a new generation cyber security products following agreements with partners including Intel Security, Palo Alto Networks, Alien Vault, BlueCoat, RSA and Vaultive.

ElevenPaths improves and optimises its most powerful tools, Sinfonier, Latch, SandaS or Metashield Protector, thanks to these alliances, and offers unbeatable solutions for companies
 
Telefónica and ElevenPaths have presented the company's new cyber security product lines at its third Security Innovation Day conference.

The improved and expanded services are a result of Telefónica signing strategic alliances with key players in the security sector including Alien Vault, BlueCoat, Intel Security, Palo Alto Networks, RSA and Vaultive.
 
Thanks to the input and technological capabilities of the new partners ElevenPaths has improved and optimised its most powerful tools including Sinfonier, Latch, SandaS and Metashield Protector.
 
"Telefónica has always set out to be more than a security reseller," said Chema Alonso, Telefónica's global head of security and CEO of Eleven Paths.

"We focus on working closely with stakeholders and customers to help identify the most strategic partnerships, acquisitions and technologies that exactly meet the needs and requirements of enterprises and end users in today's cyber and IoT security environments."
 
ElevenPaths has recently acquired GesConsultor, the technology solution specialising in management and compliance systems (Governance, Risk & Compliance, or GRC), which from now on is integrated as SandaS GRC within its product portfolio.

The Telefónica subsidiary has also acquired the intellectual property of the Handwritten Signature Capture and Verification Development System in Mobile Platforms Software, which is linked to research work with the Carlos III University of Madrid.

The total EMEA security appliance market has remained flat despite strong growth from unified solutions, says IDC.

IDC's EMEA Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker shows that the EMEA security appliance market reached $837.65m in 2Q15, a 0.2% year-on-year decline because of falling prices. Shipments increased 4.0% year on year to 183,885 units.

Over the next five years the security appliance market is expected to accelerate at a CAGR of 6.3% and reach $4.59bn (1,018,373 units) by the end of 2019.

Check Point secured the top position in 2Q15 in the overall security appliance vendor market with 19.2% value share. Cisco's market share has increased for the past three quarters and represented 16.8% value market share. With a very strong second quarter (40.6% annual growth in value), Fortinet took the third spot with 11.1% of the market.

The Western European market showed moderate growth in security appliances, with $646.79m in value in 2Q15, representing 2.4% growth over the same quarter in 2014. The main market driver of the security appliance market in Europe remains UTM solutions, which represented over half of the value (56.5%) in 2Q15, with associated 16.9% growth.

"The European appliance market is driven by the UK and Germany - the two largest economies - which represented over 45% of the total Western European market last quarter," said Romain Fouchereau, manager, security appliance research, IDC. "Unified threat management appliances continue to be the main market driver in Western Europe, and although IDC sees organizations' interest in IDP products, they often prefer to have it deployed through UTM/NGFW rather than a stand-alone product."

In the emerging markets of CEMA, security appliance hardware shipments contracted 2.2% year on year in 2Q15. Vendor revenue declined in turn by 6.7% over the same period, to $150m.

"Central European and Gulf region countries are slowly regaining health as confidence in the market increases," said Mohamed Hefny, senior analyst, systems and infrastructure, IDC. "Amid geopolitical tension and instability, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are still in decline."

Unified threat management (UTM) adoption continued to increase, taking the largest share of shipments to CEMA. The product category reached maturity and, with many successful stories from neighbouring Western European countries, end users are no longer hesitant about consolidating their data centre security.

UTM appliances were the only product category that increased in value in 2Q15, expanding 12.9% year on year. As a result, their value share reached 53.9% of the total. Over the next five years, UTM is expected to remain the largest product category, representing about 62% by 2019.

SAP shares jumped +6% premarket after reporting a 19% rise in Q3 operating profit (€1.62bn), beating the most optimistic analyst estimates.

The results show yet another sign the German software maker is managing an industry-wide shift to cloud computing programs without sacrificing margins.

SAP also said it would stick to its outlook for full year non-IFRS operating profit of €5.6bn-€5.9bn, representing 0-5% growth from €5.6bn in 2014.

Distributor Cloud Distribution has added Check Point Software to its mobile security portfolio of vendors which includes Aerohive, Cisco Meraki, OpenDNS, Netskope and Blackberry.

"There is no overlap with existing vendors within our portfolio," Adam Davison, Product and Marketing Director, Cloud Distribution told IT Europa. "We have already signed net-new partners for CheckPoint giving them new routes to market around the network security and specifically Mobile Security space.

"The mobile market is booming with everyone having a smartphone, laptop, or tablet, but it's not as secure as it could, and should be. As a result we're seeing many enterprises looking beyond mobile device management solutions to gain additional mobile security functionality."

Investor Elliott Associates, which carries a strong influence in the tech sector, has acquired significant stakes in Mitel and Polycom (over 5% in each) and is urging the companies to merge and create a new global powerhouse in the UCC market. In a letter sent by Elliott officials to Polycom's board of directors and CEO Peter Leav the investment firm stated...

'Elliott strongly believes a combination of mid-tier UCC vendors will create greater scale, significant synergies and a meaningful valuation uplift for stockholders. Elliott would be willing to provide financing for Polycom's acquisition of targets in the space, something we have successfully done before'.

Elliott officials also expressed its views to Mitel's head honchos, saying that Mitel is a good 'platform vehicle to roll up the sector and is also an attractive merger candidate for Polycom'.

In a statement, Mitel responded... 'We welcome Elliott Associates' interest and ongoing investment in Mitel. We have reviewed Elliott's recent filings on schedule 13-D and share their views as to consolidation opportunities in our industry. Mitel's senior management has consistently discussed its intention to consolidate the market, and in recent years has proactively leveraged M&A activity to successfully deliver shareholder value. As always, we look forward to creating further value for all Mitel shareholders'.

Unify's next generation communication and collaboration platform Circuit is up and running at Nimans, providing resellers with a choice of two commission-based ways to drive revenue and start a 'new conversation', said the firm.

Unify has expanded the availability of Circuit to more than 30 countries worldwide backed by an updated Partner Program Guide based on an easy route to sales success.

"Circuit is a powerful collaboration tool combining voice, video, screen sharing, messaging and file sharing in a single view.

"It enables natural conversations and moments of insight encapsulating 'people working together, everywhere'," explained Paul Burn, Head of Category Sales, Nimans.

"Circuit is web-based SaaS, built for team collaboration, capturing social and mobile trends based on everything at a glance. It's designed to meet the needs of today's increasingly mobile working generation.

"Significant add-on sales opportunities for existing customers keep competitors locked out. As a cloud solution with flexible sales models resellers benefit from low cost of entry, easy profit and recurring commission-based revenue."

He says resellers can choose either a Referral Business Model where resellers refer qualified leads to Unify - or use an Extended Agent Model where they prepare their own quotes and can upsell their own portfolio.