Comms Dealer

Logicalis UK has achieved the Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Authorised Technology Provider (ATP) designation from Cisco.

The designation recognises Logicalis as having fulfilled the training requirements and programme prerequisites to sell, deploy and support Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure products and solutions.
 
Participation in the Cisco ACI ATP Program allows Logicalis to offer customers a new data centre architecture designed to simplify operations and greatly reduce provision time through automation for their applications.
 
Chris Gabriel, CTO at Logicalis UK, said: "Together with our strategic vendor partners we've long been committed to helping realise the positive impact of emerging technologies for enterprise IT, with Software Defined Networking and Application Centric Infrastructures at the top of that agenda for some time.
 
"We're focused on helping our customers build a new relationship between IT and the business, where the CIO is able to offer the choice of services their organisation needs at the speed the business needs it - we call this the Service Defined Enterprise.

"The Cisco ACI authorisation is further testament to our investment in the skills, infrastructure, people and training that position us as a trusted partner in transforming the way organisations define and provision agile IT and data center services.

Fortinet has closed the acquisition of Meru Networks, expanding on its secure wireless vision to address the $5bn global enterprise Wi-Fi market with integrated and intelligent secure wireless solutions.

Fortinet's solutions in secure Wi-Fi markets, with its FortiAP secure wireless access points and FortiWiFi integrated security appliances for enterprise branch offices and small businesses, have been among the fastest growing products in the company's 'advanced technologies' portfolio.

The addition of Meru's intelligent Wi-Fi solutions to the Fortinet portfolio extends the delivery of a secure, uninterrupted user experience - anytime anywhere - providing peak performance in environments requiring high capacity load and a high-density of wireless users, such as enterprise, education, healthcare, and hospitality.

"To truly protect against all possible attack vectors, we are continuing to expand our end-to-end security platform to provide customers with the visibility and continuous threat protection they need - from the data centre to the cloud to the end-point," said Ken Xie, founder, Chairman and CEO of Fortinet.

"We expect the acquisition of Meru to help us deliver new solutions and services to help enterprises of all sizes deploy, manage, and secure wired and wireless networks in a mobile era."

John Petter, CEO of BT's Consumer Division, has called on Ofcom to formally amend the scope of its Digital Communications Review to include pay TV, citing high prices and poor outcomes for consumers arising from a lack of competition in pay TV.

In a speech to the Broadcasting Press Guild, Petter compared the falling prices, rising speeds and strong international performance of the UK broadband market with the high prices and bad outcomes suffered by UK consumers in pay TV.  

Petter hit back at Sky's calls for the break-up of BT, describing them as a 'smokescreen' designed to obscure the real market failings in pay TV, where Sky is the dominant player.

Petter said: "Whereas in the energy market regulators have criticised the Big Six operators, in pay TV Sky has a 64 per cent share, so there is really only the Big One.

"Switching in pay TV is 50 per cent lower than the levels seen in broadband, so it is clear we just aren't seeing the right levels of competition for Sky."

X-IO Technologies has appointed five new members to its Executive Team - Mark Zeller as Vice President, North American Sales; Bill Alexander joins as Chief Financial Officer; Steve Ashurst joins as GM EMEA; John Grover becomes Vice President Human Resources; and Ellen Rome joins as Vice President of Field Enablement and Demand Generation.
 
X-IO also announced that it has recruited Diamond Lauffin as Chief of Channel Strategy and Execution.    
 
Bill Miller, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "X-IO is in a strong position from which to pursue leadership in the rapidly evolving storage industry where flash, cloud, and the software defined data centre are rapidly changing the landscape.

"With an increased demand for our price/performance leading all-flash arrays and the emerging trend for ultra-reliable hardware to underpin Software Defined Storage, X-IO is now executing at a new invigorated pace."
 

Bolton-based IT provider Imerja has been selected to improve the firewall infrastructure at The Royal Mint's secure headquarters in South Wales.
 
Following a competitive tender, Imerja was chosen to devise and implement a robust security solution which delivers both costs saving and reduced overheads, proposing a solution based on firewall technology from Check Point.
 
This is the latest project in a long-term relationship between Imerja and The Royal Mint. The IT firm has been a trusted security partner for the worldwide coin-maker's since 2009, helping to protecting its information and infrastructure from security breaches and minimising the risks that could impact on brand reputation and revenue.
  
Ian Jackson, MD at Imerja, said: "The Royal Mint is now using the same firewall solution as all Fortune 500 companies and is strategically placed for growth in the deployment of IT infrastructure in an increasingly IT pervasive world.  
 
"We relish every opportunity to work along The Royal Mint's internal team - whether to discuss ideas, develop projects or implement solutions - and are looking forward to building on this partnership in years to come."
 
Jeremy Davies, Network Manager at The Royal Mint, added: "Imerja fully understood the challenge and went the extra mile during the firewall replacement project."

Unitrends global channels boss Mike Dalton , talking to Comms Dealer sister publication IT Europa, says that its full partner programme, set to be revealed in a couple of months, will avoid revenue targets and the traditional silver, gold, platinum structure in order to concentrate on lifting channel engagement frequency.

The company has committed to becoming 100% channel and he aims to develop a plan to drive business through channels and get them educated on what Unitrends offers.

Still a relative unknown in the business, the back-up specialist will also be expanding its sales teams and building out from its UK and DACH base. It has partners in every European country, he says, but as not needed to localise the product yet. With a strong offering in the mid-market, it has built up a good following in the education and government sector, but has no real vertical market dominance.

The point of the channel move is to enable it to concentrate on pushing through resellers, avoiding competition an the costs of setting up offices.

"It is all about getting mind-share," he suggests.

"If we teach the partners to fish, we don't have to fish ourselves, but we also need to convince the customers that the reseller is a fisherman."

The programme will aim to build brand awareness against multiple competitors, and grow the reseller base, using e-marketing, co-marketing and social media to convince customers and channels of the value.

If he can get the 1,000-plus resellers who have made sales, albeit most of them a single instance, to up their transaction rate an give him 20% more business, he says he will be delighted.

With a cloud product just out in the US, Europe can expect a similar announcement some time soon.  

MeetingZone has extended the capabilities of Skype for Business with an audio conferencing service that enables users to dial-in to online meetings from anywhere.

Organisations will be able to invite an unlimited number of internal or external participants to join Skype for Business meetings via standard fixed-line and mobile phones.

MeetingZone will also offer users an enhanced live support and in-call assistance facility as part of the service.

"People love the convenience and extended conferencing features of Skype for Business such as virtual white-boarding and screen-sharing, but until now it hasn't been easy to let guests dial-in to meetings via telephone," said Andy Clark, general manager for Skype for Business at MeetingZone.

"Now they can. This makes it perfect, for example, where you need external suppliers to attend a project meeting on an organisation's "internal" Skype for Business network. What's more, even Skype for Business users who are "off net" can dial-in from any location using our range of international dial-in and toll free numbers."

The Audio Conferencing for Skype for Business service offers toll-free and local access numbers in almost every country.

This enables users abroad to dial-in at their convenience without incurring hefty international or roaming call charges.

Where Skype for Business currently permits a maximum of 250 participants in a meeting, MeetingZone's service will allow an unlimited number of people to dial in.

This will give organisations the ability to use it to conduct much larger meetings where necessary - for example, when the management of a large organisation wants to address its entire global workforce personally, rather than sending out a blanket email, or invite the world's press to discuss a major announcement.

The service also integrates seamlessly with Outlook's email and calendaring functions, allowing organisations to include all the audio-only participants on an invitation, along with Skype for Business users, and track all responses automatically in one place.

ICT service provider Fidelity Group is urging SME resellers to embrace new age comms opportunities or risk losing customers to fleet-footed technology companies that understand the benefits of SIM connected devices, true IP communications and the 'applification' of business processes.

The Henley-based business - named the eighth fastest growing technology business in the UK in 2015 - has put a call out to resellers to join its new industry club aimed at helping resellers understand how to quickly and simply bring new revenue streams into their business by embracing M2M, new business apps including Microsoft 365 and the grants available from the Government's Super Connected Cities initiative.

The Fidelity Club's Inaugural educational events will take place at the world famous Leander Rowing Club in Henley on July 22, 23 and 24.

"We're looking for ambitious resellers to join us that want to take their business to the next level," said MD Alan Shraga.

"Massive changes are happening now and part of the exciting event plan we have pulled together is to make resellers aware of these new revenue streams and the journey they should be taking their customers on.

"By 2016 every single customer of every single reseller will have approximately four to five connected devices per individual. That represents a massive growth opportunity which we want to help resellers profit from."

Click here to register for the Fidelity Club events at the Leander Club

VIRTUS Data Centres has secured 12 new customer wins in 2015 and the extension of three existing customer contracts into its new LONDON2 data centre in Hayes, forcing the firm to drive the build out of LONDON2's Phase 2 expansion ahead of schedule.

Development of LONDON2's Phase 2 has already begun and will initially deliver a further 3MW-plus of IT load. On completion of Phase 2, two thirds of the site will be complete and available for use.

VIRTUS new customer wins include companies specialising in cloud technology, secure hosting, professional services and education, as well as the finance industry and a mining company.

VIRTUS Data Centres MD Darren Watkins said: "Following demand for space in LONDON2 Phase1, VIRTUS has again partnered with Bouygues Energies and Services to build out the second phase of LONDON2.

"Given the success achieved by LONDON2 in the short amount of time it's been open for business, we're excited about what this means as we enter the second half of 2015."

Cheltenham-based Total has sealed a mobile airtime agreement with IT distributor Tech Data Mobile, the mobile division of Tech Data UK.

Tech Data Mobile's reseller partners now have access to a range of airtime packages delivered via Total, which launched its channel programme in 2010.

Total MD Lorrin White said: "I firmly believe that partnerships and collaboration are key to growth and success for all. As such, they continue to form a significant element of our strategic focus at Total.

"Technology is a fast moving industry, with comms and IT becoming more intrinsically linked every day. Experience, teamwork and reliability is therefore crucial and as a longstanding service provider with an award-winning channel proposition, this relationship reinforces our commitment to these principles."