Comms Dealer

In a statement Steria has dismissed moves by Atos and is no longer interested in its 'merger' offer.

Earlier, Atos sent an offer to the Steria's board with an invitation to open talks about possibility of a combination of the two companies.

Atos says it had been in 'friendly discussions' with Steria's key stakeholders for some time.

In a letter sent to Steria's board Atos specified that such offer could be issued at the terms of 22 euro per Steria share in cash. Also, Atos offered Steria a chance to revert to it by April, 7th.

Meanwhile, on April, 8th, Steria announced its plans to merge with Sopra to create a European leader in digital services with estimated revenue of €3.1bn.

On April 4th, the offer represented an exchange value of 22 euro per Steria share on the basis of the weighted average Sopra share price over a one-month period, it says.

Atos received an answer from Steria's board saying that 'it had not been in position to assess the (Atos) offer'.

Additionally, Steria made a comment that it found Atos' approach as disturbing in the ongoing negotiations with Sopra Group. The comment was made even though Atos stated that it had acknowledged Steria's intention to pursue a merger with Sopra however it maintained the terms of its 'friendly offer' to remain valid until the Sopra EGM in late May, it says.

US-based provider of security-as-a-service solutions Alert Logic is to expand into the EMEA, opening a new hub in Cardiff to serve as both data and security operations centre and provide support to the customers in the EMEA.

Additionally, Alert Logic will continue to invest in the new UK office and build sales, marketing and support teams to serve UK customers.

The company has also managed to secure a development grant from the Welsh Government which supports, in this way, creation of new jobs in the region along with further training programmes, it says.

At present Alert Logic has 300 customers in the UK which include cloud and managed hosting providers.

Gray Hall, CEO, Alert Logic, said: "Data from our recent Cloud Security Report noted Europe as having the highest volume of attacks in hosting and public cloud infrastructures.

"European customers are looking for high-quality, cloud-based security and compliance solutions that can address their unique needs.

"With over 300 Alert Logic customers in the UK already, we are excited to announce today that Alert Logic is expanding into Europe with the goal of providing better support for our current and future customers."

Software as a Service, while growing, is suffering from perceptions over issues surrounding security and compliance.

A new report from Juniper Research forecasts that revenues generated from enterprise Software-as-a-Service will reach $53.5bn in 2018, representing 59% of the enterprise public cloud computing market, rising from $23.2bn in 2013.

Software-as-a-Service will remain the dominant cloud model, it says, though Platform and Infrastructure models are growing. This is due in part to the relative maturity and widespread acceptance of the model, as well as recognition of the comparative benefits and risks of commissioning cloud-based software. However, it argues that enterprise take-up of PaaS and IaaS solutions has been adversely impacted by concerns over data security, compliance and portability.

Nevertheless, the report found, both PaaS and IaaS will experience significant growth over the forecast period as new applications, developed specifically for the cloud to harness workloads such as big data analysis, benefit from the PaaS 'fast-track' model.

Service providers are increasingly providing multi-lingual support, and improving portability through initiatives such as Cloud Foundry, while consolidation of PaaS as an extension of other cloud services is showing a rising trend.

Meanwhile, IaaS is becoming increasingly attractive to SMBs (small-to-medium-sized businesses) and enterprises alike owing to a high level of control over the software stack and security implementation, alongside a growing understanding of the need for proper risk assessment.

It concludes that due diligence is essential for potential customers to establish if, and what services can be deployed in the cloud.

Cloud IT services and business applications specialist Intermedia has appointed Aidan Simister as its new UK director of sales.

The company has recently announced the acquisition of SaaSID and following this is now implementing its new growth strategy, it says.

In his new role Simister will be responsible for strengthening cloud services revenues across the UK market by increasing the company's partner and customer base and recruiting new VARs, SIs and MSPs.

He has over 17 years of experience in the industry, having worked at both direct and indirect sales positions.

"We are excited to have Aidan join us. He has extensive experience in building successful sales teams and consistently exceeding growth targets. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and has well established relationships within the channel. This is an incredibly exciting time for Intermedia and Aidan will be a vital asset to the business as we continue to expand our footprint in the UK," says Ed Macnair, managing director of Intermedia EMEA.

Prior to this, Simister held sales and business development positions at Netwrix, Access Information security and Sophos.

Google has received a demand from the French tax authorities for hundreds of millions of euros. This is part of a long-running dispute which other countries are watchiing closely.

France is unhappy with Google's corporate structure, which enables it to recognize revenue through a subsidiary in Ireland, where the tax rate is very low. In February, it was reported that the French government could demand that Google pay €500m-€1bn. 

Veeam has named Softcat, provider of IT services, its top performing ProPartner in Northern EMEA.

Softcat has been selected as in 2013 Softcat's Veeam revenues exceeded other resellers in this region, the company says.

"We're delighted to have been recognised as the top performing reseller in the northern EMEA. This award demonstrates two things: the quality and popularity of Veeam's data protection solutions, and the commitment of Softcat's staff to engaging our customers and promoting our partners' products and services," says Sam Routledge, Solutions Director at Softcat.

Exeter-based comms provider Eclipse has staged its annual awards ceremony at The Cosy Club in the city centre.

"These awards are a fantastic way to promote and celebrate all the hard work, passion and commitment that the Eclipse team puts in throughout the year and it was certainly a night to remember," enthused MD Clodagh Murphy.

Award categories included Customer Champion of the Year, The One to Watch and the Eclipse Star of the Year which was awarded to David Howard, whose dedication and hard work has helped Eclipse put foundations in place for their plans to double in size in the next five years.

Murphy added: "Without doubt the team here are our most valuable asset, and the culture we have is critical to our success. Taking the time out to celebrate our achievements and acknowledge the hard work of the fantastic Eclipse team is a real highlight for us all, but particularly for me. It is a real pleasure to be part of this team and I am inspired by them every single day."

Dirk Valbert is to become the new CFO at Dortmund-based UC vendor Swyx from May 1st.

The MBA holder brings more than 18 years experience in the telecommunications industry and a broad expertise in the areas of finance, controlling and consulting, together with extensive management experience.

The 45-year old has been involved in the telecommunications industry since he began his early professional life at mobile operator Mannesmann.

For 12 years he was chief financial officer at conVISUAL AG, where has was responsible for all commercial matters and successfully led the mobile marketing solutions manufacturer on to the stock exchange.

In his last position, Valbert was Managing Director for a display systems manufacturer where he was responsible for its sustainable restructuring.

Dr. Ralf Ebbinghaus, Chief Executive Officer, Swyx, said: "We took the time to find the right choice: Swyx is currently in transition, with new structures and processes being introduced to adopt to recurring revenues from a SaaS business model. We need a specialist like Dirk Valbert, with his breadth of experience and his visionary approach to future markets."

iHub has strengthened its team with the appointment of George Vlismas as Operations Manager.

Vlismas, an experienced network support manager with significant experience within the telecommunications and IT industry, joins the leading business hosted communication supplier as they embark on their major Channel partner recruitment drive.

Having previously worked in senior positions at Nortel and most recently Unified Group, Vlismas is tasked with further enhancing iHub's high levels of partner support, coordinating install activity within the operations team and testing and supporting iHub's evolving range of hosted IP voice services.

In addition, Vlismas will also play a pivotal role in the roll-out of MiHub, iHub's new second generation partner portal.

Vlismas said: "I am looking forward to being part of growing the organisation's Hosted Voice services and SIP trunk business. It truly is a dynamic and expanding market."

iHub Commercial Director John Donaldson added: "George's wealth of experience in VoIP and unified communications makes him a valuable addition to the iHub team. George will play an integral role in operations as we support further growth of our and our partners businesses in the HIPT space."

ICUK has played a role in the biggest expansion of the domain namespace since registration began.

The days of traditional .coms and .co.uks could be behind us, as a rollout of new extensions will see a surge in creativity hit the market, claims the firm.

New domain name extensions include .technology, .shopping, .coffee, .training and even .bike.

Paul Barnett, director of ICUK, said: "This is the biggest expansion in the market we've ever seen and it gives people a chance to secure the simple address they always wanted, or find one more relevant to their business.

"This expansion also gives people the chance to be much more creative with their domain names, once the limitations of familiar extensions are gone.

"New names have already been snapped up - we're seeing a surprisingly large number of people get on board with the changes securing themselves great names."

ICUK is marking this event by offering free whois privacy on all of the new domain extensions as well as many of the existing options.

Barnett added: "We believe privacy should be a right, not a privilege, which is why we're offering whois privacy for free.

"We want to see our users protected from identity theft and spammers and hope they'll take up the offer when registering one of the new, exciting domain names through us."

The new domain extensions offer a wide range of options for businesses and individuals in a variety of industries. Those in service industries will find options such as .builders, .construction, .florist, whilst cafe and restaurants can choose from .menu or .kitchen. Bloggers can choose fashion related extensions, such as .clothes and .diamonds, and photographers can create an online showcase with .gallery or .photos.
?The new domain names are now available through the ICUK website.