Speaking to MicroScope at an Avaya customer event in London, Culmer said that following Avaya's recent decision to adopt a vertical sales model - focused on public sector, financial services and retail, brands and services - it made sense to account for midmarket customers in some way.

"Having gone vertical there was a lot of focus on high-end accounts, but the challenges that we're helping large organisations respond to all exist in the midmarket as well," he said. "Why should those customers not want to benefit from that innovation?

"It could be as big as any vertical, but will take nothing away from them," he added.

Although still very much in the early stages, midmarket customers will be classified by a more in-depth method than simply putting a revenue or headcount figure to them, and Culmer said that partners would be key to making that work.

"We will work with channels to help inform those decisions; it maybe that they have existing relationships with those customers, and they will often know the market better than us," he said.

In related news, former Mitel boss Enda Kenneally, who joined Avaya in December 2011 as head of BT sales, is understood to be taking control of the vendor's channel ops in the UK and Ireland, replacing Niall Anderson, who left the firm in January.

A hefty 46% of IT decision makers have admitted they do not know the value of their IT debt, defined as the cost of clearing the backlog of maintenance to bring the corporate applications portfolio up to date. 44% of confirmed they don't have, or don't know if they have, a structured process for measuring and managing their IT debt and 45% of those are not planning to implement one.

"Mainframe Transformation: the Elephant in the Room", is an independent global research study undertaken by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Micro Focus, provider of enterprise application modernisation testing and management solutions.

590 CIOs and IT directors from around the globe estimated their IT debt at $10.9m (£6.8m) on average, with $8.5m attributed to mainframe applications, and guessed their IT debt would grow on average by 9% over the next five years. Gartner estimates that IT debt will break the trillion dollar mark globally in the next five years.

The Micro Focus research did show that 87% of respondents confirmed that they have a structured review process strategy for their application portfolio, initiated on average every four months. 

"The research results shows that IT organisations are tinkering under the bonnet with their application review and updates today rather than installing a new engine, creating a frightening balance sheet liability," said Stuart McGill, CTO at Micro Focus.

More than half (57%) admitted to having an unclear picture of the detail with one in 20 saying that their application portfolio was "a confusing mess" and nearly a fifth said it contained legacy applications that no one knew how to update and were afraid to touch.

Meanwhile between 15 and 20% confirmed that they have redundant applications running without the means to identify and retire them or thatc merger and acquisition activity had created an unclear picture of their applications and what should be retired.

"Over this decade, IT organisations will have to transform from project-obsessed organizations to asset-obsessed ones, particularly if they are to get maximum value from the average 27% of annual IT budgets that respondents confirmed were allocated to operating, sustaining and improving the integrity of mainframe applications and their assets," added McGill.

The firm, which picked up VADition 11 months ago to fill out its UK proposition, grew its turnover by 70% in 2011 and hopes to make sales of €275m this year.

Company CEO Olivier Breittmayer said he saw 2012 as a breakthrough year for the Paris-headquartered distie.

"The core strength we are able to offer and our nationally-focused, independent and entrepreneur-led business units makes us able to accelerate and sustain the market potential of emerging and fast-growing technology companies," he said.

In a traditionally sluggish quarter, and a squeezed market, the firm's overall performance had been impressive and talked of "encouraging signs" for the rest of the year, reckoned Breittmayer.

He said a glut of recent vendor IPOs from names such as Infoblox and Proofpoint, as well as a scheduled public offering from Palo Alto Networks, had all done their part to boost Exclusive's performance.

"These events illustrate our vendor's intention to fuel and accelerate growth," Breittmayer concluded

Chief exec Jens Montanana talked up a strong performance in South America - notably Brazil - and APAC, as sales spiked 17% on 2011 to $5.03bn (£3.15bn) and EBITDA grew 34% yo $190.2m.

"Our global reach and diversity continues to serve us well, helping to insulate the Group against the challenging trading conditions in North America and Europe," said Montanana. "Europe looks likely to remin challenging."

Geographies outside its European and American cores now contribute 33% of Group revenues and 40% of gross profits, which Datatec said validated its decision to diversify outside its comfort zone.

Broken out into its three business units, networking and security distribution powerhouse Westcon enjoyed pay-offs from recent investments in higher margin network security goods, as well as the effect of a number of acquisitions, booking sales of $3.7bn, up 17% year-on-year.

Meanwhile growth in annuity sales meant Logicalis turned in tasty figures as well, up 18% to $1.23bn. It also saw robust increases in hardware sales, with Cisco and HP kit doing particularly well.

Consulting Services also continued to improve, with sales up 10% to $79.4m.

In its earnings statement today, Datatec said it was now looking for sales of between $5.5bn and $5.8bn during the next 12 months, although as far as Europe and the UK are concerned, it is taking nothing for granted.

The 'Nimbus Mobile Device Management (MDM)' solution offers over-the-air control for mobile business devices allowing businesses to fully secure and remotely monitor mobile devices on their networks using mobile data management (MDM) technology developed by DIALOGS, which was recently acquired by Sophos,

"Laptops used to be the thorn in a security professional's side, but more and more, it is devices such as smartphones that are posing the problem,"said Robert Newburn, head of information security and managed services at Trustmarque. "They are easily lost, damaged or stolen; they hold as much information as your company laptop, but they are rarely as well protected."

The Sophos solution, Sophos Mobile Control, provides protection for popular business devices, such as iPhones, iPads, Android, BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile and enables access to a central role-based web console, which is simple to use and can remotely locate, lock and wipe devices within seconds to prevent data loss and security breaches.

"We have a long-standing relationship with Trustmarque, and their expertise in the security space made them the obvious partner to work with on an MDM managed service," said Neil Furby, cloud services business development manager for Sophos.

"Mobile device management is a huge issue for customers and with Trustmarque's strong cloud heritage and technical capability, our companies will provide customers with robust and flexible protection for mobile devices," he continued.



"By delivering Sophos security through the cloud, we can offer a responsive and flexible managed service whereby users can take control of their mobile devices by simply logging on to a web browser," added Newburn.

The tool can also be used to enforce security policies by activating security features and can control what applications users can or should have installed on their device. In addition an at-a-glance mobile inventory shows all registered devices, including their settings and configurations, and flags non-compliant devices.



"Whether you have 10 or 10,000 devices, they need to be properly protected," Newburn said. "This new service will provide businesses with the ability to offer employees the latest technology, which they use every day in both a work and personal capacity, while still ensuring data remains safe."

This was the market's first decline since the second quarter of 2009, and even strong sales in the smartphone segment, up 45%, were unable to offset the severity of the slowdown.

Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said that the first quarter saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and "users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year."

The analysts revealed that although all vendors were impacted to some extend, white-box vendors struggled the most, while tier one players such as Nokia were negatively impacted on sell-in numbers into retail.

Gartner is predicting ASPs to drop during the second quarter as a result, but nevertheless, principal research analyst Annette Zimmermann sounded a cautious note for the rest of the year.

Based in Paris, Hamber, who moves from Edge-Core Networks, will be responsible for driving distribution channel sales strategies, focusing on leading partner initiatives and implementing global distribution programmes in the EMEA region.

"Juniper is well positioned to offer its partners competitive sales and service revenue opportunity, placing them at the core of our business," said Hamber.

He added: "Juniper is committed to partner profitability through local knowledge and valued-added specialist skill sets, enabling partners to have effective customer engagement with its innovative new network solutions."

"I am delighted to welcome William as the new leader for our distribution channel. His appointment reflects Juniper's commitment to expand our key initiatives, programmes and resources further throughout the channel," added Helfer.

"William's deep knowledge and wide expertise, coupled with his leadership skills, will be invaluable to Juniper Networks as we build out the next evolution of our distribution partnerships and engagement in EMEA," concluded Helfer.

Hamber was a senior manager of channel sales and marketing at Edge-Core. He previously held various roles within HP Networking, HP distribution channel sales and HP Europe.

The vendor said it had taken the step in response from direct feedback from its VAR community who had "seen Dell utilise these platforms for various business opportunities from support to product introductions, and have requested assistance in learning from our experience," according to Dell Europe executive director of channel marketing and programmes, Kathy Schneider.

"Our partners understand social media will have a big impact on their businesses and have said they'd like to have a deeper understanding of the social media space and how to leverage these platforms in business," Schneider added.

The once-a-month online sessions will focus on platforms where Dell is already active, such as Twitter where it has a strong presence, and will explore how resellers can interact with the vendor online, and get involved in using social platforms for their own benefit.

"The datacentre fabric market is poised for spectacular growth this year and our goal is to ensure that our business partners have the tools, training, and incentives they need to compete and win in this space," said Michelle Humphreys, senior director of strategic global alliances at Xsigo.

The datacentre fabric deployment and technology provider rolled out the new programme to further enable resellers that are experiencing growing demand among virtualisation experts and network administrators.

"We believe this programme plus the ongoing dedication of our sales and support staff gives our partners a competitive edge and excellent margin potential," continued Humphreys.

The Xsigo Connections Partner Programme will provide multiple levels of participation and support to enhance business partners' market competitiveness and margin potential. Key elements include improved margin opportunities, sales incentives and enhanced training including accreditations

"The efficiency gains brought by virtualisation have hit a wall and our customers that are seeking further innovation are rethinking their basic infrastructure. Xsigo provides the missing piece to achieve a fully virtualised data centre," commented Andy Wright, director of vendor alliances at SCC.

"Expanding the partner programme is welcome news as the additional sales and technical support along with accreditation and certification programmes will better equip our team and help us ensure success with end users."
 
"Greater adoption of virtualisation and a move to cloud computing is changing how data centre managers see the network. New architectures are required, and fabric networks are at the forefront of this change," added Clive Longbottom, Quocirca founder and analyst.

"End users will be looking to their current suppliers to provide product and expertise in data centre fabric networks, and vendors who can provide equipment, training and support to the channel, as well as helping in driving demand and leads for their channel partners, will be well placed to do well in such a dynamic market," he said.

The survey indicates that 40% are deploying public clouds and 43% implementing private clouds, while over a third are using mobile devices and virtualising servers.

The survey indicated that SMBs are keen to adopt these technologies, with 37% saying that improved disaster readiness influenced their decision to migrate to cloud and very similar numbers sited the same decision making process for their mobility and virtualisation implementation.

The respondents also confirmed that the investment was proving effective with 71 percent reporting that their disaster preparedness improved with virtualization. Over 40% agreed that cloud migration had improved their disasater readiness as well as 36% of those implementing mobile devices.

"Today's SMBs are in a unique position to embrace new technologies that not only provide a competitive edge, but also allow them to improve their ability to recover from a disaster while protecting the information that their businesses depend on," commented Steve Cullen, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for SMB and Cloud at Symantec.

"SMBs cannot afford lengthy downtimes so the ability to quickly recover from a disaster is critical," Cullen continued. "Technologies such as virtualisation, cloud computing, and mobility, combined with a sound plan and comprehensive security and data protection solutions, enable SMBs to better prepare for and quickly recover from potential disasters such as floods or fires, as well as lost or stolen mobile devices and laptops."

The survey took place via telephone in February and March 2012 with 2,053 organisations worldwide.

Speaking to MicroScope, Williams said that the firm was seeing growing levels of interest in its cloud proposition from enterprise and large corporates, including some FTSE 100 buyers and large system integrators.

"We thought we would see traction in the midmarket, but actually we're seeing interest across the board; some large companies are looking at us for bespoke clouds," he said.

"It's a factor of expertise, although they may be able to build very strong networks they don't always have managed datacentre skills or virtualisation experts, and they like the fact that we have that flexibility and focus."

The buy-and-build firm has just dipped into its savings for the second time this year, buying out pure-play managed hosting and cloud providers Firstserv and Serverstream for an undisclosed sum, bulking up its midmarket business.

Both firms immediately add £3m of hosting sales to Six Degrees balance sheet, which the firm says should take its annual run-rate to over £40m, with underlying EBITDA of £10m.

The acquisition also brings 17 new heads to the firm's 110-strong workforce, in a mix of sales and technical roles, and brings customers including luxury yacht builder Sunseeker, The Spectator and the Port of London Authority.

Firstserv MD Gordon Kenneway said that gaining access to a "larger, geographically diverse hosting platfiorm with best-in-class compute and storage resources" was a key motivator in the decision to sell up, sentiments echoed by his counterpart at Serverstream, Jonathan Obadia.

Image courtesy: Siri Stafford

No, that's nonsense. Jeff Bradshaw, the chief technical officer of Adaptris, has a much better metaphor, says Nick Booth. 

Data is like the eyes of an organization. If your left eye offends you, you should strike it out, say the Bible. What the Gospel doesn't mention is that doing this will ruin your sense of spatial awareness; having two eyes allows you to see things in three dimensions. 

So if you have internal data and data in the cloud, you need to make sure they are linked up in order to get the full picture. So that means that a layer of super-fast nervous tissue must connect the cloud with the internal data. The technical term for this is cache storage and it gives the body of a company a synchronized view of the world that can be accessed at high speed by its central processing units. 

So now Adaptris can help companies like Big Airline and Massive Unfriendly Telecom instantly access data that once took six weeks to get their hands on. It's not that long ago that all data was held in silos and was rarely cross-referenced. In those days, the corporation had a fly's composite eyes and about as much intelligence. 

But cloud computing hasn't yet liberated the CIO and COO from the tyranny of silos. There's a new problem emerging, thanks to the cloud. Now that cloud apps are proliferating there are endless APIs (or barriers, as they've more accurately known) across which COOs flounder. The APIs and the service level agreements that govern the functioning of a modern corporation are proving just as restrictive as the old silos of information. They're the new silos of connectivity. 

So in the kingdom of the blind, the one API man will be king.

Numbers from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) will spur more calls for education, penalties and greater support from the government for those trying to make a living from their intellectual property.

The BSA's latest global software piracy study show that the piracy rate in the UK stands at 26% with a quarter of all programmes installed being unlicensed producing a lost revenue to the industry that topped a billion pounds.

As well as revealing that 27% of people are using pirated software the study also found that 77% of UK PC users did not feel the risk of getting caught was an effective deterrent.

The ServiceWorks package includes core services built around compute platform, email and backup solutions, with cloud desktop, video and collaboration options set to be dropped into the mix during the next 12 months.

The reseller talked up aspects of the package designed to deliver on its promises of transparency and straight-talking, including self service tools for end-users, automated provisioning features and in-depth quality-of-experience metrics.

It claimed the user-driven approach it has taken to service design means a number of pre-existing cloud customers have already taken the bait.

"We've tried to create a cloud computing story which is jargon free and focused on business outcomes," said Kelway managing director Dan Laws.

"A barrier has been created by confusing terminology which doesn't help oprganisations overcome prevailing business concerns such as security, cost-effectiveness and delivery of a reliable user experience," he continued.

VMware vice president of EMEA partners and general business, Andy Hunt, added: "VMware is enabling businesses of all sizes to accelerate the journey to cloud and help drive the proliferation of cloud services jointly with its partners. It was a logical step for us to work closely with Kelway in developing their suite."