Comms Dealer

European cyber-security growth is being driven by the wider use of mobile devices in enterprises, says a researcher, and it expects this to rise at 13% per year for the next four years.

Technavio, a tech-focused research firm, has published a new report on the cyber security market in Europe, and draws attention to the adoption of BYOD policies in workplaces which allow employees to use their personal mobile devices for work.

This has increased the demand for uninterrupted connectivity between a corporate network and employees' mobile devices.

Faisal Ghaus, Vice President of Technavio, said: "The rise in employee mobility is leading to the increased use of mobile devices, but these can be insecure, making it easy for hackers to gain unauthorised access. This is expected to drive the growth of the cyber security market in the coming years."

The latest Technavio report also emphasises the growing demand for cloud-based security systems. Organisations that find it difficult to manage stand-alone or integrated network components because of budget constraints and lack of resources are opting for these solutions.

"Cloud-based security solutions are cost-effective, compatible with PCI DSS regulations and offer round-the-clock system monitoring, which is expected to contribute to the market growth during the forecast period," added Ghaus.

Planet Hippo has launched a new Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution providing corporate users with a scalable, secure and cost effective way to deploy cloud hosting offering 99.99% availability and zero packet loss to meet SLA requirements, said the firm.

Planet Hippo's IaaS solution is powered by OnApp, the rapidly growing cloud resource technology which is now used by one in three public cloud platforms.

It enables users to set up private or public clouds in minutes using libraries of pre-configured, customisable virtual machine templates that allow easy deployment of virtual machines running different operating systems and applications simultaneously.

Planet Hippo also enables users to select the resources they require, including virtual private servers and shared hosting platforms, scaling them as required to match demand, save energy and minimise cost.

According to Darren Lavender, Managing Director of Planet Hippo: "This new IaaS solution offers greater flexibility and scalability than traditional web hosting.

"It enables corporate users to accelerate their delivery of cloud services and achieve significant cost reductions by reducing their reliance on premise-based IT infrastructure and eliminate the need for costly and obsolete centralised storage."

Plans announced by Angie Communications to build three next generation comms infrastructures in the UK are well advanced with the company  now taking registrations for its upcoming nationwide 10-gigabit fibre connectivity which will be available to three million premises. Also in the pipeline is nationwide 4.5G mobile covering 95% of the UK population, and 5G wireless networks covering 90% of the UK population.

The registration process concerns Angie's nationwide fibre roll-out only.

The timing and possibility of actual connecting people depends on certain aspects, said the firm.

ISPA has welcomed Astro Communications as a new member, giving the ISP access to the trade association's innovation, knowledge and experience.

Astro Communications MD Steve Hodges said: "Our decision to become a B2B ISP in 2014 means we are now in a stronger position to play a more proactive, contributory role within the industry. We applied for membership to ISPA and are delighted to have been accepted into the association.

"Astro plans to take full advantage of the benefits of ISPA membership, helping to influence the industry through shaping public policy, being part of ISP specific discussion groups and getting involved in events and awards. It's an exciting time for Astro Communications."

European telecoms operators could realise 39 billion euro by re-imagining the network, claims a study by Arthur D. Little and Bell Labs which states that NFV and SDN are a strategic opportunity and a necessity for the telecoms industry.

The study, titled 'Reshaping the future with NFV and SDN', predicts that the shift to becoming a cloud carrier has the potential to significantly redefine how the industry competes in the cloud era.

The report says that for the last 20 years, IP modernisation in carrier networks has been restrained by the need to accommodate legacy network functions and disparate management systems.

By first consolidating network functionality and eliminating outdated hardware, telecoms operators will realise the systemic gains from full IP transformation and modernised operations.

The report findings show that the efficiency impact of onboarding NFV and SDN for these operators could be worth 14 billion euros per year in the network domain alone, which will be augmented by a further 25 billion euros per year in non-network operating costs through greater automation and simplification of business processes.

Jesús Portal, Partner at Arthur D. Little, said: "The time is now for Europe's telecoms industry to bring networking into the cloud era. It will not be trivial to execute programmability and automation at the scale required for success, but the prize is significant."

Bringing the supply chain together under one umbrella including the end user was the rationale behind Panasonic's new B2B Partner Portal, according to Valerie Poret, Panasonic European Channel Manager.

"The Partner Portal is about closing the gap between Panasonic, our channel partners and the end user," she said.

"Clients have access to resources that enable them to maximise potential sales and achieve higher levels of service.

"The portal covers more products and make it easier for distributors and resellers to access customer facing information and register new business."

The web-based service is open to users across the company's Visual Systems and Communications divisions Europe-wide, and will be expanded to other business divisions later this year.

Those who sign up for the scheme gain access to product information, sales news and business incentives, with rewards scaled according to the level of partnership - Registered, Expert or Solutions - depending on the user's level of training and sales volume.

High level partners will also benefit from end user business lead allocation.

The Partner Portal also offers an online training programme and provides instant answers to product related questions.

"Depending on products, partners can find easy tools to support their daily business, such as eConfig which helps comms specialists to build their customer offer and select, at a glance, the system matching end user requirements," added Poret.

"For visual technologies, AV rental companies have access to a community platform allowing them to share information about their fleet of products available for cross-rental."

Farnham-based Opus Team has swiftly secured a greater portion of the market having wrapped up a round of acquisitions.

The comms firm has secured the customer bases of Phipps Communications and BTNS and significantly advanced its strategy to double revenues over the next two years.

MD Mark Castle (pictured) said: "Our strategy is to grow the business by selecting small companies or sole traders that have a similar offering to our products and services, but are at a size whereby the owners' responsibilities become too great to manage or have been affected by competitive pressures.

"The customers we bring to Opus Team gain access to a wider range of services such as Internet connectivity, mobile, IT and cyber security solutions."

Andy Phipps, owner of Phipps Communications, commented: "Mark and his team enabled me to pass my business comfortably over to Opus Team, knowing that my customers would be looked after with the highest regard and care during the transition."

Opus Team currently employs over 25 staff and is preparing to recruit more product specialists and installers.

C4L is bringing business grade connectivity to Bournemouth having commenced local fibre digging to install a high capacity fibre network across the town, which was named the fastest growing Digital economy in the UK.

Matt Hawkins, Chairman and founder, said: "Bournemouth competes globally so deserves to have the best chance of continued success with business grade connectivity.

"Installing superfast fibre in Bournemouth has always been a dream of mine. I can see how it will accelerate the town even further. With government Connection Vouchers of up to £3,000 being eligible in the area, there is nothing to stop businesses improving the platform they trade from."

Timico has snapped up IT managed services provider Wirebird, a privately held company established in 1998 and Timico's eighth acquisition in 11 years.

The services offered by Wirebird include managed hosting, infrastructure projects and IT transformation programmes in both on-premise and cloud environments.

Timico CEO Tim Radford said: "We have worked together as partners for some time and Wirebird's expertise in fully managed and outsourced IT solutions complements the Internet, hosting and communication services we supply.

"As well as having all the right technical credentials, they are a great team of people to do business with."

Wirebird employs over 50 staff across its central London base, its Reading sales, marketing and finance office, and support operation in Auckland, New Zealand.

Wirebird's CEO Malcolm Gardiner will continue to run the company under the Wirebird brand as an independent subsidiary of Timico.

He said: "This as a positive step in the growth and development of Wirebird, and we are also excited about giving our clients access to a wider range of services in the future."

IT departments today are twice as likely to focus on cost reduction and technological support of employees as they are on those things that can grow the top line.

Although a more strategically focused IT department is expected to emerge over the next five years, a more substantive shift is needed to fuel the innovation agenda.

That's according to research commissioned by Claranet that surveyed 900 IT decision makers from the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux.

The primary functions of the IT department are considered to be data security (56 per cent), technological support of employees (38 per cent) and cost reduction (34 per cent).

However, just 16 per cent felt that making the business more competitive was a core function, while only 14 per cent identified increasing customer loyalty*.

According to Claranet, the results confirm that the average European IT department is some way off from arriving at Gartner's third era of enterprise IT, 'digitalisation' whereby the IT department continually provides new opportunities for growth, innovation and market differentiation.

Claranet's UK Managing Director, Michel Robert, said: "Increasingly, business success rests on the IT department's ability to develop applications and IT systems that deliver ROI by being agile and flexible enough to support new ways of doing business.

"But it's clear from the research that the average IT department is still more likely to be seen as a cost centre rather than as an enabler of business transformation and differentiation.

"While the research found that the IT department will become more strategic over the next five years, focusing more on expanding into new markets and executing new business models*, the era of 'digitalisation' will remain some way off for the majority.

"The role of IT services providers in facilitating the shift from keeping the lights on to business enablement cannot be understated.

"In today's economic climate, it makes absolute sense for existing IT staff to focus on higher value strategic work, while transferring the day-to-day management of IT infrastructure to a trusted partner who can provide higher levels of service through economies of scale and skill and deliver cost reductions as a result."