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Fortinet has launched a new four-point programme for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) in the EMEA and APAC region.

The new programme will offer beneficial pricing, technical support and training and MSSP-specific marketing assistance, claims the firm.

This two-tiered programme will aim at smaller security integration companies as well as 'pure-play' MSSPs and large telecoms. It focuses on four business components: infrastructure enablement through special discounts, business development, marketing and sales support and MSSP Specialised support, it says.

FortiGate network security platforms are the backbone of the Fortinet MSSP security portfolio. This can be coupled with FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer or FortiCloud to help MSSPs keep their customers' networks protected, the company says.

Fortinet also offers network security platform integration into Cloud, Virtualisation and Software Defined Networks (SDN).

Top business tips and insights into market trends feature as part of O2 Wholesale's updated YouTube channel, with videos from Ben Johns, Business Development Manager at O2 Wholesale, and Dan Cunliffe, Head of Partners and Strategy, talking business.

Meanwhile, Geoff Malvisi, Business Development Manager, discusses how channel businesses can avoid the sting of the recession, while Adrian Barnard, founder of Modern Communications, sums up his experience of working with O2 Wholesale.

To find out more click here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6IidUlXsyDsYe9MA0Jy4nptQuksLsmgX

BT Business Partner Sales has boosted its partner proposition with the launch of a new portal called AcademyPoint.

The portal offers sales and marketing content but also gives partners access to personal development courses supplied to BT by  e-learning partner Skillsoft, a provider of cloud-based learning solutions.

Martin Clarke, BT General Manager, said: "We know that having the right people with the right skills is essential to a successful business; so having taken feedback from our partners on what development they wanted we launch AcademyPoint."

Channel-only SIP trunking firm VoIP.co.uk is including a number of VoIP security features as standard.

The Oxfordshire-based ITSP recently become a PCI-DSS Level-1 Service Provider for its secure SIP Trunking service, SIP Encrypt.

"Our Partners have often voiced their concerns about security when deploying VoIP as no matter how careful you are with the CPE there's often a weak link with the service provider," said Adam Crisp, MD.

"As such, we take a lot of those headaches away and ensure that the care taken by the partners to secure the CPE elements of the deployment is continued into the cloud by us."

VoIP.co.uk's Enhanced SIP Trunking includes security features such as Toll Fraud Detection where irregular activity triggers an alarm for a technician to investigate and take steps to minimise the impact of any security breaches.

"The alarm is investigated at any time of day or night and our technician will attempt to confirm whether the activity is legitimate or not with the named stakeholders," added Crisp.

"Where we are unable to reach the stakeholder a conscious decision is taken to err on the side of caution and kill the call. Our Partners agree that it's easier to start the call again after speaking with us than to deal with the fallout from a security breach."

Beyond the Enhanced Sip Trunking solution, says Crisp, VoIP.co.uk has taken security to the 'next level'. "SIP trunk usage within the Payment Card Industry (PCI) is attracting a lot of close scrutiny from PCI Security Standards Council as well as organisations such as Barclaycard and Visa and there is now a compliancy requirement for merchants processing transactions across SIP Trunks," he added.

"We have developed a PCI compliant secure VoIP solution which encrypts and protects telephone calls which has obvious applications for PCI but also prevents eavesdropping and subsequent intellectual property theft."

According to its organisers the 15th ISPA Awards staged on July 12th in London proved the strength of UK Internet industry, with ISPs of all sizes sharing the spoils.

In the ISPAs 15th year, 15 awards were given out covering the spread of the Internet sector, from consumer and B2B services, to hosting, safety and inclusion.

In a close contest Sky won the Consumer Fixed Broadband while Plusnet won Best Consumer Customer Service.

Catalyst2 walked away with two awards, picking up Best Business Customer Service and the Customer Choice Award, which is decided by ISPs own customers.

KC improved on last year's commendation to be named the overall winner of the Internet Safety & Security Award. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) was commended for the role in making the internet a safer place.

New for this year, the Best Superfast Award went to Hyperoptic, a company who has grown since winning Best New ISP at the 2012 ISPAs.

Kent Wimax provider VFast took home Best Fixed Wireless, reflecting the growth of this innovative new services.

"ISPA would like to congratulate all the winners and thank all the attendees, judges and sponsors for making the evening possible," said Nicholas Lansman, ISPA Secretary General. "It's been a crucial year for the internet industry in the UK and the 15th Awards show the sheer diversity and innovation in a successful part of British industry".

The evening was compered by comedian Sean Collins, with a keynote speech from broadcaster and technology critic Bill Thompson.

WINNERS:
Best SME Business Hosting Award - Storm Internet?
Best Large Business Hosting Award - Fluidata?
Best Internet telephony Award - Telappliant
Best Managed Service Innovation - Media Service Provider
Best Business Customer Service Award - Catalyst2
Best Consumer Customer Service Award - Plusnet
Digital Inclusion Award - myLovelyParent
Internet Safety & Security - KC
Customer Choice Award - Catalyst2
Best Fixed Wireless Award - VFast?
Best Business Fixed Broadband Award - Entanet
Best Consumer Fixed Broadband Award - Sky Broadband?
Best Superfast Broadband Award - Hyperoptic

Internet Hero: ISPA Council chose Julian Huppert MP for leading the political campaign against the Communications Data Bill and for being one of the few MPs to understand the internet.

Internet Villain: ISPA Council felt that Recep Erdogan's continued censorship of the internet and calling social media 'a menace to society' means he earns the Internet Villain award in 2013.

Mobile made up 26% of search traffic tracked by SEO firm RKG in Q2, up from 24% in Q1 and just 15% a year ago. Google and (Bing-powered) Yahoo each got 28% of their traffic from mobile, and Bing only 15%.

Google got 31% of paid clicks from mobile (a sign that its enhanced campaigns are helping?) against 19% for Bing and Yahoo. Monetisation still lags, but (as suggested by other reports) the gap is narrowing; mobile rose to 22% of ad spend, fueled by 165% and 261% yr/yr increases in tablet and smartphone spend.

Then again, tablet advertisement prices were roughly even with PC prices; smartphone prices remained 40% lower. One problem for Google is that Apple's iOS made up 69% of mobile traffic, and Google has to give Apple a big cut on much of revenues.

Hot demand for video has prompted closer investigation of the fees that telcos and carriers charge each other.

The European Commission has undertaken a number of unannounced inspections of various telcos active in the provision of Internet connectivity in several Member States, and following its investigations has raised concerns that the companies may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit the abuse of a dominant market position.

The Commission officials were accompanied by their counterparts from the relevant national competition authorities.

The high demands on systems by video has already caused conflict in the US, where Verizon and Cogent Communications are in dispute over the cost of carrying heavy video traffic, with the result of some of Verizon's customers seeing a poor Netflix performance.

Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step into suspected anticompetitive practices. The fact that the Commission carries out such inspections does not mean that the companies are guilty of anti-competitive behaviour nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation itself, it says.

There is no legal deadline to complete inquiries into anticompetitive conduct. Their duration depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of each case, the extent to which the undertakings concerned co-operate with the Commission and the exercise of the rights of defence.

Deutsche Telekom said in a statement that data and emails had been seized from its offices, and confirmed that the 'the allegations are that the companies, coming from various markets, may have abused their possibly dominant position on the worldwide Internet traffic market'.

"Deutsche Telekom is surprised by the initiation of further investigations by the Commission into the global market for Internet traffic, since previous allegations have all turned out to be unfounded. Similar investigations carried out by national regulatory bodies, who have also dealt with the issue in great detail, have also been abandoned," the firm said.

Distributors Arrow and Avnet Technology Solutions have both been selected as IBM Global Training Providers.

This means that they can offer training programmes to build competency and knowledge around the entire IBM portfolio to reseller partners, as well as end users.

The Avnet centres supporting this global training role will commence in two phases, starting with: Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK and Ireland,

In the next 12 months, Arrow ECS Education will implement its IBM Global Training program in up to 130 countries, it says. It is anticipated that it will be available in 10 countries to start, and will be offered in more than 50 additional countries by the end of 2013, and to the remaining countries by summer 2014, Arrow says.

Laurent Sadoun, president of Arrow ECS in EMEA and head of Arrow's worldwide services for the ECS segment, said: "We will now support IBM's new partner-led model through training solutions and a global team of training experts to help increase IBM education and adoption of the IBM software and systems portfolio in the global marketplace.

"It will also deliver to our partners visibility on their customer projects, bringing many cross-selling and upselling opportunities."

The worldwide business analytics software market is expected to grow at a 9.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2017, according to a new forecast from IDC.

Demand for business analytics solutions will continue to be driven by the promise of better and faster decision-making and competitive advantage that results from the ability to analyze and act upon information in a timely manner, claims the firm.

"There is growing quantifiable evidence that data-driven decision making enabled by business analytics solutions provides a competitive difference," said Dan Vesset, Program Vice President, Business Analytics at IDC. "This, along with broad interest in big data, has pushed the technology to the top of many executive agendas and ushered it into the mainstream market."

In 2012, the worldwide business analytics software market grew 8.7% year over year with revenues reaching $34.9 billion. This was significantly lower than the 15% year-over-year growth experienced in 2011, and is attributable to the macroeconomic issues plaguing the global economy and the weak performance of European markets.

Despite the slower growth, the business analytics software market outperformed the overall software market, which grew 3.6% year over year in 2012.

On a regional basis, the emerging regions of Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) and Latin America that showed the best performance in 2012, with 13.4% year-over-year growth each. The recovering U.S. economy helped North America to keep pace with the emerging regions in 2012 with a 12.1% growth rate. Latin America is forecast to have the highest growth rate through 2017 - a 12.4% CAGR - followed by North America with 10.9% and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) with 10.5%.

Of the three primary segments of the business analytics software market, the data warehousing platform software segment experienced the fastest growth in 2012, growing 10.8% over the previous year. The business intelligence and analytic tools segment and the performance management and analytic applications segment each grew 7.7% year over year in 2012. In this diverse and highly competitive market, the six largest vendors - Oracle, SAP, IBM, Microsoft, SAS, Teradata - accounted for 64% of worldwide revenues in 2012.

A new DECT telephone from Gigaset and stocked by Nimans is said to be the latest weapon in the battle against nuisance calling.

The Gigaset C620A incorporates a dedicated nuisance call blocking key and Nimans says the handset represents a 'powerful addition' to a reseller's sales armoury, opening up sales opportunities in workplace and home office environments.

Over 1.5 billion nuisance calls are made to the British public every year, with over 70% of phone owners indicating they have been targeted by a scam during the last twelve months.

The C620A has a 26 hour talk time and 530 hours in standby. It benefits from a 55 minute built-in answer machine and is available in single, twin, triple and handset only variants.

Nimans' Purchasing Director, Andy Winfield, says the device is another significant step forward in the battle to overcome nuisance calling - combining a 15 number 'blacklist' with a 1.8" colour display and 250 name phonebook capacity.

"Until recently call blocking was not an inbuilt function of DECT telephones but this latest development from Gigaset provides resellers with a new weapon to clinch more business," he said.