Computer Vendor News

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Vendor News

Dell unveils ProManaged Services for resellers

Dell has finally taken the first steps to build modular managed services for partners that can be resold in their entirety or selected individually to bridge gaps in a reseller’s existing branded portfolio.
Oracle expected to face EU questions over Sun

Oracle’s plans to buy Sun Microsystems are not having quite as smooth as passage as could have been expected with the purchase likely to be referred to the European Union anti-trust authorities.
C&W looks to exploit user focus on telco costs

Cable & Wireless believes that with the channel it can make serious gains in the SME market as customers facing the recession review their telecom strategies.
Mobile operators start tug of war over T-Mobile

After Vodafone emerged as a potential bidder for T-Mobile’s UK operation earlier in the week, a bidding war now looks set to break out as reports emerge claiming Spanish outfit Telefónica has weighed in.
Public sector needs motivation on green issue

Cisco has called for public sector organisations to get talking to one another after research found that many of them are not coming up to scratch on green IT.
Freedom4 confirms Daisy and Vialtus acquisitions

Freedom4 has conditionally agreed to acquire telecoms reseller Daisy Communications and web hosting and network services provider Vialtus ahead of a proposed share placing on AIM to raise £83m.
Former Novell boss de Rojas turns up at McAfee

Former Novell country manager Jacqueline de Rojas has taken over running the UK for McAfee.
Alcatel-Lucent partners not left out of HP tie-up

Selected Alcatel-Lucent resellers will be able to sell the future fruits of the networking vendor’s new tech alliance with Hewlett-Packard “in the short term” according to the company’s vice president of strategic partnerships, Francois Pitti.
Cisco plans tiered cloud assault

Not content with declaring war on Hewlett-Packard, Cisco now appears to be going after Microsoft too.
Review of the Month, June 2009

The top stories of the month as chosen by MicroScope.co.uk readers.
Fujtisu wins direct deal with Imperial Tobacco

Fujitsu Technology Solutions has bypassed channel partners to win a deal direct with Imperial Tobacco, providing its field sales force with 400 pen tablet PCs to run CRM software.
Kaspersky looks for channel support to achieve ambitions

Anti-virus specialist Kaspersky Labs is planning to become the number one vendor in the market within five years as it looks to build on its consumer branding in the corporate space and take share from rivals.
Freedom4 Group to get acquisitive

Freedom4 Group is embarking upon the acquisition trail and plans to build an independent powerhouse to take on rival telecoms giant BT, say sources close to the situation.
MicroScope top five, week ending June 26 2009

The top five stories grabbing your attention last week on MicroScope.co.uk
Vodafone may make T-Mobile bid

Shares in mobile comms operator T-Mobile were up on Monday morning after reports in the Financial Times claimed rival Vodafone was close to making an acquisition bid.
Nortel creditors object to Nokia deal

Nortel’s American creditors have filed objections to the announcement last week of the sale of its wireless assets to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) in a stalking horse deal.
Oracle Sun deal hit by DoJ delay

Oracle’s bid to acquire Sun has run into a hurdle after the vendor failed to win regulatory clearance for the $7.4bn deal.
Channel leads debate on Government £1bn stimulus package

IT industry calls for £1bn from central government to invest in sustainable IT systems that will save the public sector money and lower carbon emissions were debated in the Houses of Parliament yesterday evening.
Maverick to expand across Europe

Maverick is setting up operations across Europe and has reshuffled its UK management team, freeing up current incumbent Jon Sidwick to spearhead the expansion.
Windows 7 no engine for PC growth in Q4 says Gartner

Such is the inconsistency in the global PC market that analysts at Gartner are now predicting growth in sales during Q4 but reckon Windows 7 will only have a “very modest” influence.
Alcatel-Lucent names HP alliance chief

Details are beginning to emerge of the new alliance set up by Alcatel-Lucent and Hewlett-Packard last week after Alcatel-Lucent named its French sales account management lead Christel Heydemann as strategic alliance vice president for HP.
SAP sticks to software

SAP's new CEO has ruled out following the route taken by its major rivals and investing in hardware promising to stick with software.
Micro Focus faces renewed battle for Borland

Micro Focus, the British application management specialist, faces a renewed battle to get its hands on Borland after the US company revealed it had received a superior bid.
Packard Bell signs up Micro P to build a retail channel

Packard Bell is taking the first steps to re-establish itself in the UK retail sector by penning a distribution deal with Micro P and is believed to be close to signing Ingram Micro.
Northamber makes way for Micro P in Lenovo reshuffle

Lenovo has confirmed that it is winding down its distribution agreement with Northamber and is preparing to welcome Micro P on board.
Micro Focus unveils solid numbers for fiscal year

Micro Focus, which remains in the driving seat in its efforts to acquire Borland after seeing off a rival bid, has reported a solid set of preliminary results for its financial year.
Nortel makes 150 more UK job cuts

Nortel’s UK administrators Ernst & Young have confirmed a second round of redundancies at the company after over 200 were ousted in March.
Panda Security reveals global ambitions

Panda Security, which earlier this week acquired Panda from Formjet for £1.4m, has outlined its global ambitions after adding the UK to six other franchise operations.
Red Hat numbers heading up

Open source Linux solutions are clearly holding their own through the downturn if Red Hat’s latest set of financial results are anything to go buy.
Mamut hires Richter to drive UK growth

Mamut has appointed Bryan Richter as country manager for the UK replacing Alan Moody who has left the business.
Avaya thought to be moving closer to Nortel bid

Just days after Nortel announced it is to sell its wireless division to Nokia Siemens Networks for the knock-down price of $650m; Avaya has once again emerged onto the scene as a likely bidder for Nortel’s enterprise business.
Intel Nokia alliance heralds next-gen mobiles

Intel’s re-entry into the mobile market looks assured after the chipmaker inked a new alliance with Finnish mobility behemoth Nokia to develop a new class of mobile device.
Oracle results show software holding up

Green shoot watchers received a fillip in the form of better than expected results from Oracle with the vendor commenting that there had not been a catastrophic drop in software sales.
Datacentre battle will force VARs to take sides

Resellers who have partnered with both Hewlett-Packard and Cisco will be forced to pick sides as the competition between the two vendors in the datacentre environment heats up.
Jobs heading back to Apple after second cancer battle

Apple supremo Steve Jobs will shortly be back at the helm after allegedly undergoing a liver transplant for cancer back in April, the Wall Street Journal reported at the weekend.
Top five stories on MicroScope.co.uk

A round-up of the top five stories grabbing your attention last week on MicroScope.co.uk
Formjet sells Panda for £1.4m

Formjet has sold off anti-virus specialist Panda UK for £1.4m promising the channel that the disposal will provide it with more time to focus on its other products.
Nokia Siemens grabs Nortel wireless biz as break-up nears

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) is to pick up Nortel’s CDMA and LTE Access businesses for the bargain bucket price of $650m after entering into a stalking horse agreement with the Canadian networker.
HP UK boss to leave for Korean post

Hewlett-Packard UK and Ireland vice president and managing director Stephen Gill is set to leave at the end of the month to head up the vendor’s business in Korea.
Micro Focus ups bid for Borland

In its bid to acquire Borland the British software vendor Micro Focus has been forced to counter a rival bid and increase its original offer.
HP to cut Gold Partner numbers

Hewlett-Packard will cut the numbers of Gold accredited resellers from the start of its fiscal 2010 by re-jigging the revenue threshold requirement.
HP puts emphasis on transparency at Software Universe

Hewlett-Packard has emphasised the need for application transparency and ease of use at its Software Universe event.
Zafirovski claims Nortel bonuses vital

Speaking before a Canadian parliamentary committee today, Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski has insisted that the recent round of $45m in bonuses to key Nortel employees was justified even as over 200 UK workers were laid off without severance packages.
Giddins jumps ship to Brocade

Brocade has finally confirmed the appointment of ex-Nortel hotshot Amanda Giddins as its new EMEA channel sales director.
Alcatel-Lucent signs HP for 10-year love-in

Alcatel-Lucent and Hewlett-Packard today put their marks on a 10-year networking tie-up that will see the two firms jointly market end-to-end converged comms and IT solutions.
Symantec adds SCH Distribution amid distie review

Symantec is reviewing its distribution line up and plans to drop one partner after it has welcomed on board SCH Distribution next month.
Sun Microsystems to cut UK workforce

UK staff at Sun Microsystems that have been placed at risk of redundancy will be informed of their fate by the end of next week with many of the casualties expected to come from the direct sales organisations.
Nortel administrators respond to criticisms

Nortel administrators Ernst & Young have responded to criticisms levelled at them following the sudden and uncompensated redundancies of 228 Nortel staff at three UK sites in March.
IT consumerisation an unstoppable force

The consumerisation of IT has become an unstoppable force that will drive businesses away from distributed computing models towards an on demand services environment.
Lane Fox confirmed as Government's digital champion

The Government has finally confirmed that Martha Lane Fox has been appointed as the champion for digital inclusion.
Seagate EMEA boss says IT market has bottomed out

Seagate Technologies’ newly elevated EMEA vice president Mark Whitby reckons demand for IT is no longer in freefall.
Mimecast channel to get bite of C&W customers

Cable & Wireless has sealed a partnership with email archiving specialist Mimecast in a deal that the security vendor states is going to be a positive for its channel partners.
HDS latest to roll out partner finance and leasing

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is planning to roll out next month a leasing and finance facility to channel partners that primarily sell to mid-sized and large enterprise customers.
Nortel partner event picketed as storm grows over job cuts

Protesting Nortel workers were forcibly removed from a central London hotel last week after picketing a channel partner event to demand an explanation for their treatment at the hands of administrators.
SAP unveils change to UK leadership

SAP has made a couple of appointments to bolster its UK management team unveiling a fresh managing director and financial officer.
IBM x86 sales continue to plummet in the UK

IBM’s restructure of the System x division has yet to pay off in the UK after analyst data showed sales continued to sink in the first quarter.
C2000 ''disappointed'' as VMware terminates contract

Computer 2000 has voiced regret about VMware’s decision to terminate its SME distribution contract and will refocus efforts on alternative vendors including arch rival Microsoft.
Hui gets hands on InFocus

Struggling projector vendor InFocus has been acquired for $39m by John Hui, one of the founders of e-Machines.
SAP unveils hosted option for installed base

SAP has outlined plans to enter the hosted market allowing customers to buy on-demand applications in a move seen as an attempt to catch-up on some ground lost to rivals that have already established SaaS offerings.
Avaya and IBM expand partnership

Avaya and IBM have expanded their eight-year partnership to deliver new unified comms security solutions, as well as incorporating Avaya’s new flagship Aura architecture.
Dell to bolster retail channel amid flagging sales

Dell is planning to expand its presence in the consumer market by partnering with additional retailers after its division targeting that market just broke even in the seasonally weaker fiscal Q1.
APC calls for reseller and power contractors to join forces

Data centre cooling and power specialist APC, has declared war on waste power consumption and is calling for electrical contractors to join forces with VARs to promote the adoption of efficient IT.
Symantec and McAfee hit by fines in US for unauthorised renewals

Symantec and McAfee have been forced to pay out a combined $750,000 following a US case that found that they had renewed customers licences without informing them.
FD Systems acquires Microsoft Dynamics Partner Clarita

Microsoft Dynamics Gold Certified Partner Clarita has been acquired by Sage house FD Systems for an undisclosed sum.
Check Point merges product line with Nokia appliance

Check Point has combined its software and the appliance range it acquired from Nokia into a single SKU and will be encouraging partners to start selling the combined product.
Switch warranties latest weapon in network wars

Nortel is to offer lifetime warranties across its entire Ethernet switching lines from the start of July to reassure wavering customers over its future, as rival Cisco has also quietly introduced limited lifetime warranties on some products.
Government tweaks credit insurance scheme

The Government has buckled under pressure from businesses and backdated the top-up trade credit insurance scheme to October but the costs and bureaucracy involved will continue to hinder wide adoption.
PBX market decline continues

The seemingly inexorable decline of the British corded PBX and IP PBX market is continuing in the face of the economic downturn.
Tech acquisitions rebound from spring slump

As a measure of the potential recovery in the economy the value of mergers and acquisitions last month rebounded after a poor March and April.
Former Mistral management team start cloud venture

The management team that were at the helm of Mistral Internet before it was sold to KCOM Group for £`19.7m a couple of years ago have regrouped to form a cloud venture.
Jobs close to Apple return

Apple head honcho Steve Jobs is thought to be days away from staging his triumphant return to the helm six months after he took a temporary leave of absence for health reasons.
External disk storage market sinks in EMEA

The EMEA external disk storage market suffered in the first quarter of 2009 dented by the recession and volatile currency markets.
Cisco to get aggresive in consumer space

Cisco is claiming it has crossed a chasm when it comes to its nascent consumer strategy, and CEO John Chambers has vowed to “skill up” around the consumer business, adding “we’re going to be very aggressive here.”
Cisco CEO Chambers calls on resellers to capture new markets

Echoing a growing theme in the industry, Cisco CEO John Chambers has called for the channel to grasp hold of transformational technology in order to lead new markets when the upturn comes.
Government names Sir Alan Sugar as enterprise czar

The chairman of Amstrad Sir Alan Sugar has been drafted into help the government.
IBM postpones roll out of software accreditation

IBM has delayed the introduction of the selective distribution model as part of the Growth For Skills accreditation until next year.
Cisco updates small business programmes

Cisco has updated its small business programme in a move it claims will offer higher levels of support to its vast SMB channel in the UK.
Centrix outlines wholesale move to channel

The newly appointed channel team at virtualisation service specialists Centrix have set out their ambition to move its business from a direct model to indirect using a two-tier model.
Sage talks up position in enterprise space

Nine months since establishing its enterprise division Sage is reporting back tough but healthy market conditions for its ERP and CRM products.
Cisco updates Value Incentive Programme

As Cisco pushes its end-to-end network vision with a series of enhancements to the Value Incentive Programme (VIP), Cisco partners have stepped up to defend the vendor’s strategy.
Cisco has second attempt at Managed Services

Cisco is relaunching the Managed Services Programme with the aim of making it available to a wider range of resellers.
NetApp raises bid for Data Domain

NetApp has raised its bid price for Data Domain by more than 26% to $1.9bn and warned a deal with rival suitor EMC would disrupt the portfolio.
Windows 7 release date confirmed for October

Microsoft has finally confirmed what has been an open secret in most hardware manufacturing circles that it will launch Windows 7 in October.
Winners at the MicroScope ACEs

The MicroScope awards were held last night in the Hurlingham Club in South West London with the great and the good of the channel attending an event that recognises and rewards excellence in the reseller, distributor and vendor communities.
Cisco channel blueprint to tackle the downturn

Cisco head of global channels Keith Goodwin has today announced new partner programmes and an extension to the terms of its reseller financing deals.
EMC bids $1.8bn for Data Domain

EMC has made a counter offer for Data Domain which is 20% higher than the $1.5bn bid slapped on the table by NetApp last month.
Mitel partner event to focus on support

Mitel has outlined plans to step up the support its offers resellers in the next few months aiming to help them get through the recession.
Dell on the hunt for acquisitions

Dell has indicated it may look to exploit the relatively low valuations of technology businesses in the current climate by acquiring.
Micro Focus faces rival bid for Borland

British software company Micro Focus looks like it might have a rival in the wings as it moves to complete its acquisition of Borland.
Symantec to target McAfee resellers through Bell

While the dust is still settling on McAfee’s decision to dump distribution partner Bell Microproducts, arch rival Symantec is looking to exploit the potential upheaval.
Brocade checks out networking distis

Brocade is on the hunt for networking distributors to fill out its new Global Alliance Partner Network, which was formally unveiled this week.
Dell sees massive PC refresh on the horizon

Dell is not yet ready to proclaim that the worst of the recession is over but its CEO has given a glimmer of hope to channel partners by predicting that a “powerful” corporate PC refresh cycle will come online next calendar year.
HP signs Cobweb to provide channel with white label cloud

Hewlett-Packard has signed up cloud specialist Cobweb to provide resellers with white label hosted services that can be sold to customers on a pay-as-you-go model.
HP unveils new SMB market assault

Hewlett-Packard has identified continued growth in the SME market, despite the recession, launching a number of products and services designed to appeal to smaller sized customers.
Global server market falls to historic low in Q1

The first quarter saw a number of records broken in the global server market but for all the wrong reasons.
McAfee terminates Bell Micro distribution contract

Bell Microproducts’ senior management have been left scratching their collective head following McAfee’s decision to rip up its contract.
HP submits proposals to cull 5,700 staff in EMEA

Hewlett-Packard has written to its European Works Council (EWC) to propose a restructuring blueprint that will result in the loss of around 5,700 jobs cuts across EMEA by 2011
IBM lays down gauntlet to HP services

In a move that could lure recession hit customers to switch to IBM kit when budgets ease, Big Blue has pre-packaged a post warranty support service on HP servers it claims is available at half the list price offered by its rival.
HP tipped to cut 850 jobs at its Scottish manufacturing site

Unite, the largest union in the UK has lambasted Hewlett-Packard amid allegations that the company is cutting 850 jobs from its manufacturing facility in Scotland at a time when investment is needed to stimulate the economic recovery.
Fujitsu overhauls storage range and guns for x86 segment

Fujitsu wants to make a greater splash in the volume server and storage markets by refreshing the former and entirely overhauling the latter, with an x86 rebate programme thrown in for good measure.

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