MicroScope articles from October 2007

MicroScope archives from October 2007

10 Features.
October 1, 2007... When IBM introduced the Winchester hard drive in the early 1970s, it was the first relatively low-cost magnetic storage device in the computer industry. Now in its thirties, the mass-produced commercial hard drive is still going strong, and...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
October 1, 2007... With just the fourth quarter left to get through, it is already possible to start talking about themes of the year. And for 2007, the issues that have dominated are money and skills. There have been fears on the finance side, not just over...

Inside OutResellers are missing a trick on own brand merchandisingEast v West cries out for coopetition.(15 Columns)
October 1, 2007... Dave Flack Industry comment Having successfully developed areas such as own brand food, toiletries and clothes, retailers and resellers now have the knowledge, investment, skills and buying power to develop and diversify their own...

01 News.
October 1, 2007... 'The Bishop' pipe bombs 3com to manipulate stock 3com CEO Edgar Masri has praised a "strong" start to the networking vendor's fiscal 2008 after its first quarter sales closed up 6 per cent to $319m ([pounds sterling]158m). Although the firm...

01 News.
October 1, 2007... The case against Stuart Mann, ex-managing director at Future Network Systems Sales (FNS) kicks off today at Southwark Crown Court. He is charged with an offence to defraud and to pervert the course of justice. As revealed four years ago,...

04 Hardware.(data centres energy consumption )
October 1, 2007... The rhetoric used by vendors to describe the lack of available power in data centres has over hyped the issue according to analysts, and the industry risks losing credibility with customers. In a report entitled What data centre crisis?,...

07 Security.(managing consumer data so as to avoid leakage)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The threat of data leaks emanating from internal security flaws is now more of a concern than external attacks according to those focusing on this side of the industry. Recent high profile data leaks in financial institutions have...

07 Security.
October 1, 2007... The name Peapod is set to disappear from the channel next year after the security specialist was acquired by Global Secure Systems (GSS). In a sign that economies of scale through consolidation is the way the market is going in security,...

08 Storage.(Network Appliance Inc. gives distribution contract to Bell Micro UK )
October 1, 2007... Network Appliance has abandoned its single distributor strategy of four years by appointing Bell Micro UK to sit alongside current incumbent DNS Arrow, claiming the previous approach was not sustainable. The move will fill the gap in Bell's...

08 Storage.(Hitachi Data Systems Corp. launched storage opration centre)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Resellers will not have access to Hitachi Data Systems' (HDS) newly launched storage operations centre (SOC) until next year as the company tests the service with large enterprise customers. From the UK HQ in Sefton Park, SOC will be able...

01 News.
October 1, 2007... Acquisition-hungry Avnet Technology Solutions has agreed to pay [pounds sterling]41m for ACAL's IT Solutions division, including networking, storage, services units as well as document management distributor Headway. The US giant is...

ZyXEL looks to homes with networking kit.(01 News)(ZyXEL USA to sell products with help of retailers)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... DSG, dabs.com and eBuyer are among the names signed up by networking kit vendor ZyXEL to sell a range of consumer networking gear aimed at helping it expand its brand. The vendor has been selling small quantities of lower-end kit through...

01 News.
October 1, 2007... Microsoft has trumpeted another victory against those selling unauthorised products after reaching a High Court settlement with Pyramid Distribution. The St Helens-based distributor had been accused of selling parallel imported goods into...

01 News.
October 1, 2007... With one eye on the demands of international players, Westcon has announced the launch of its Global Business Programme, a procurement service designed to support multinational partners. The programme is designed to remove logistical...

Content Group sets the standards.(01 News)(content provides gives best service)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The Content Group has revealed it is to lead the development of a set of best practice standards, in conjunction with BSI British Standards, for the rapidly maturing enterprise content management (ECM) sector. "The market is growing and...

02 Software.
October 1, 2007... The exclusive distributor for Adobe's enterprise products in North America is preparing to establish an EMEA operation to run the revised channel programme for the vendor's enterprise products in Europe. 4Point, which is focused on Adobe's...

02 Software.
October 1, 2007... The cost and effectiveness of software applications represent a significant constraint on growth for many companies and more than half are also faced with inadequate IT staff resources to meet demand. The findings were contained in a survey...

03 Networking.(ACAL Networks to partner with Ruckus Wireless)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... ACAL Networks is to form the nucleus of midmarket WLAN vendor Ruckus Wireless' UK partner programme. The scheme, set up following the launch of Ruckus' ZoneFlex in July, is intended to fill a gap in the wireless networking sector. ...

03 Networking.
October 1, 2007... ShoreTel partners will soon be able to sell integrated Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with the vendor's Internet protocol (IP) telephony system following a deal with AudioCodes. The deal means AudioCodes' digital and analogue gateways will...

15 Columns.
October 1, 2007... "We're very clear....that this is not about running out and carpet-bombing everything." If these happened to be the words of George W Bush we'd be panic buying tinned goods right now and trampling over nuns and small children on the way to...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... BT continues to build a mid-market reselling and services force in the UK after buying Lynx Technology for what is believed to be [pounds sterling]22m, and there are indications the telco's acquisition strategy is not yet complete. The...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... The newly appointed UK partner director at Sun Microsystems is reviewing its software partner model and could appoint a distributor after admitting its Solaris OS has not been sufficiently thrust into the limelight. At the same time, Paul...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... Online auction sites supplying counterfeit products are costing the channel millions of pounds a year. The Business Software Alliance has put a figure of [pounds sterling]8m against what it believes will be lost in software revenue in 2007...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
October 8, 2007... If we wanted to it would almost be possible - with a bit of co-ordination - to run an anti-piracy story every week as the vendors start to raise the profile of their activities in this area. As it is, there are plenty of stories coming out,...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... Microsoft has continued to keep up its battle against parallel imported and counterfeit products by taking action against R J Campbell Ltd, who traded as Software Price Beater. As part of the settlement, which included paying costs of...

01 News.(occupation overview of Edward Kenny director of Computacenter PLC )(Occupation overview)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Lower than expected sales of corporate infrastructure products are believed to have cost Edward Kenny, director of the corporate and end-user hardware business, his job at Computacenter. He worked at the corporate reseller for 17 years and...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... T-Mobile has dramatically increased its IT reseller exposure as it enables dealers to sell its mobile solutions portfolio for the first time. Its previous foray into the IT resale channel, which launched last year (MicroScope 19 June...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... In a bid to get itself and its technology embedded into the Web 2.0 world Microsoft has introduced its Accelerator start-up investment programme in the UK. The scheme has been running in the US but has now been launched here with five...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... Alcatel-Lucent is considering expanding its UK distribution channel on the enterprise side of the business in 2008 as it plans to be "more speculative". The telco specialist's UK and Ireland vice-president for enterprise and verticals,...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... EMC has acquired Utah-based Berkeley Data Systems, which focuses on hosted backup and recovery services and is the provider of Mozy, a subscription service for the protection of data on laptops and desktops. Avnet Technology Solutions has...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... The merger of SurfControl and Websense has finally been concluded but rivals that had been exploiting the uncertainty around the future direction of the combined entity show no signs of backing off. Ever since the protracted merger was...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... Lenovo is continuing to fight back in the UK PC market and will kick off a distribution agreement with Westcoast at the end of this month that aims to build sales of its Top Seller range among SMEs. After turmoil in 2006, the vendor...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... Networking market watchers are anticipating signficant changes to switching and routing specialist Foundry Networks' channel programme, with sources voicing encouragement for the vendor to rethink its approach to its partners. One source...

01 News.
October 8, 2007... Novell has released a service pack to improve its Sentinel 6 security information and event management product, which aims to make sense out of collected event data, identifies security or compliance issues, and tracks remediation activities,...

01 News.(rise in the interest rate causes economy of country)
October 15, 2007... Fears are mounting that despite the confidence of the government the turbulence in the world economy could lead to a "mini recession". There have been five interest rates hikes in the last year, though a further rise was ruled out last...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... The fraud case against Stuart Mann has been thrown out of court by the judge in its first week after the prosecution was unable to provide documents deemed vital to ensure a fair trial. As exclusively revealed (MicroScope 1 October), the...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... Twenty one resellers have dropped off Hewlett-Packard preferred partner programme after a nine per cent increase to the vendor's minimum revenue threshold requirement and changes to baseline accreditation training. But seven new resellers...

04 Hardware.
October 15, 2007... Within five years the majority of US enterprise data centres will face disruption as a lack of available floor space and rising energy bills bite hard but the UK faces an even worse predicament. A report by Gartner said US firms will face...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
October 15, 2007... Every five to seven years, as Silicon Valley goes into a cyclical downturn, I get calls from various media organisations wanting to write its obituary. This was especially true after the internet bubble of 1999/2000 and then again in 2005...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
October 15, 2007... No-one wants to get caught in a vicious circle, where you are talking up the possibility of a recession, but you have to be prepared for what might be coming over the horizon. Whatever you might have thought of Tony Blair's government,...

07 Security.
October 15, 2007... Secure Computing has joined the ranks of vendors talking up the threat from the web, revealing that there is an unhealthy state of apathy among customers. According to figures it commissioned from analyst firm Forrester Consulting there...

07 Security.(saving computers from superworm virus)(Brief article)
October 15, 2007... With one eye on developing threats, security experts have warned that it is only a matter of time before a 'superworm' emerges to hit numerous machines in a manner that mimics traditional virus attacks. The possibility of a superworm has...

08 Storage.
October 15, 2007... One common theme to this year's Storage Expo event in London will centre around the environment. Although there is still much argument about just how much hype there is around green products and actual environmental solutions, customer...

08 Storage.(Storage Expo deals with enironmental issues to make storage systems eco friendly)(Brief article)
October 15, 2007... In response to growing customer demand, the seminar programme at Storage Expo contains a fair sprinkling of speakers tackling environmental issues. Backed up with its own research, the organisers of Expo pointed to a level of 95 per cent...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... A snag in contract talks between Computer 2000 and VMware has delayed a distribution deal to hand the vendor a ready-made SME channel well in advance of Microsoft's launch into the virtualisation space. The deal was said to have been drawn...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... Cisco partners have raised concerns about the efficiency of the SMARTnet technical support service following a series of tweaks over the summer intended to stop unauthorised dealers beating authorised partners on price. But the changes now...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... Selling Office 2007 has become a "nightmare", e-tailers have claimed, after Microsoft changed the way it delivers OEM versions to market in an attempt to stop independent retailers from undercutting high street rivals. Under the Office...

09 Tech Traders.
October 15, 2007... When it comes to computer cases the market has undergone a dramatic change in the past couple of years. But that change - with improvements not just in design but also in heating requirements - has been restricted mainly to a handful of...

09 Tech Traders.
October 15, 2007... There have been acres of print and web comments taken up with the sensitive issue of USB flash drives and data leakage. Some companies have reacted by preventing the use of USB drives completely, but the manufacturers have responded by...

09 Tech Traders.
October 15, 2007... The craze for everything mini continues to show no sign of slowing down with the release of a mini laptop for students but on the desktop front the advances this year have been significant. Part of the reason for the concentrating of minds...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... Nobel winners When it comes to handing out gongs and honours, the computer industry is typically ignored, with the recognition going to those who are typically working in sectors like oil and finance (and therefore able to make party...

01 News.(organizations strived hard to reduce capital gain tax for small and medium sized companies)
October 15, 2007... Small business organisations lined up last week to accuse the Chancellor of hurting SMEs with his plan to introduce a flat 18 per cent capital gains tax (CGT), arguing it represented an 80 per cent increase on the present 10 per cent rate. ...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... Hard on the heels of activities by Microsoft and Cisco and efforts to clamp down on suppliers selling products that were counterfiet more evidence has emerged that there are still cases in the pipeline. The latest example to emerge has come...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... Sage US executives stand down after poor results Sage has taken the axe to its US management after its latest figures showed that performance in the region had stalled. Ron Verni has resigned from his position as US chief executive along...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... In the same week that Michael Dell revealed partners currently account for [pounds sterling]4.5bn of its sales, third quarter channel data showed the PC giant grew unit shipments through UK distributors by 300 per cent. At the Gartner...

01 News.
October 15, 2007... Websense has made moves to calm down nervousness in the staff at SurfControl following the completion of the merger of the web filtering specialists. Rival vendors have been mounting marketing attacks for a number of months, reports of...

01 News.(PC World Business looking after their employees safety)(Brief article)
October 15, 2007... A number of back office functions at Equanet are being rolled into parent company PC World Business' (PCWB) headquarters in Bury, resulting in around 18 staff being given more than 30 days notice of redundancy. Earlier this year, PCWB made...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
October 15, 2007... Sophos has appointed Jonathan Hughes as UK channel sales director with the job of building the channel and taking market share from ribals. Hughes joins from Microsoft where he was recently employed as director og the software vendor's partner...

02 Software.
October 15, 2007... SAP propelled itself into a leading position in the business intelligence (BI) market last week with plans to acquire Business Objects, prompting speculation that further consolidation was on the cards. The [euro]4.8bn bid for Business...

02 Software.
October 15, 2007... Concerns about migration to Vista continue to dog Microsoft as users fail to embrace the operating system as the vendor expected. One of the questions put to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the recent event for developers, was if the...

03 Networking.
October 15, 2007... Switch vendor Extreme Networks has sung the praises of a compact channel as it revealed enhancements to its reseller programme, adding investment funds and extra training, among other benefits. One insider remarked that historically some...

03 Networking.
October 15, 2007... SME-focused VoIP software vendor Swyx has launched its 'Jump-Start' programme to help traditional IT resellers making the move into IP telephony. Despite the era of convergence being around for the last couple of years there are still...

10 Features.
October 15, 2007... Q. What is going on right now with the security threat landscape - has it changed in the past few months? Tim Warner: We have seen a huge shift since October/November last year, and some interesting stuff has happened in the last six...

10 Features.(forecasts and trends of computer industry)
October 22, 2007... When MicroScope was launched 25 years ago, the PC had been available on the US market for a year, and the scene had been set for a gradual move away from the first broad age of computing to the second. Brian Gammage, vice-president and...

03 Networking.(companies use networking )
October 22, 2007... Since 1982, networking has undergone many changes. Starting from a landscape in the early 1980s with just 213 internet hosts worldwide, nobody had heard of VoIP, and press releases came once a day in the post. Nowadays the network is...

15 Columns.
October 22, 2007... Someone has just launched a T-shirt that glows in the presence of a Wi-Fi signal. There's a detachable design on the front with a picture of an antenna with waves radiating out from it. The waves glow when it detects a Wi-Fi signal, and the...

01 News.
October 22, 2007... This year has already seen several anniversaries of technology and companies and now it is MicroScope's turn to step forward, blush slightly as Happy Birthday is sung out and then sit back down and wait another five years for the spotlight to...

10 Features.
October 22, 2007... The outside of the mobile phone is the new inside, according to some developments in mobile phone technology still in the laboratory. We can expect funkier exteriors and better messaging on phone covers. Already clamshell phones with small...

02 Software.
October 22, 2007... As we know from the course of the software industry in the lifetime of MicroScope, a lot can happen in 25 years. Trying to imagine what might happen in the next ten or so isn't easy. People's vision tends to become blurry after about two or...

08 Storage.(analysis of storage of computer data)
October 22, 2007... Twenty-five years ago, in 2007, the bulk of the world's digital data was held on spinning disks of three kinds: direct-attach files on network-attached storage (NAS) and blocks on storage area networks (SAN). Solid-state disks were just about...

10 Features.
October 22, 2007... Everyone in the channel has an idea of how they think the market is going to go in the next few years. Some are downbeat - based on the grim experiences of the past few years - but others have seized on the admission by Dell that it needs to...

10 Features.
October 22, 2007... In the first part of the round table debate covered in last week's issue, the state of the security threat landscape was outlined, with the criminals now clearly driving attempts to get hold of sensitive data. The security channel is...

10 Features.(forecasts and trends of computer industry)(Viewpoint essay)
October 22, 2007... Twenty-five years of 'Scope. 25! I can only presume that the nation will erupt in a wave of spontaneous street parties with bunting, pork pies, and legions of small children working themselves into a frenzy of aspartame and E-numbers. But just...

01 News.(surveys of Samsung Company Ltd. about technology)
October 29, 2007... The results of a survey by Samsung last week illustrate that people have an amazing faith in technology to help improve their businesses and the service they can offer to customers. According to the survey of 1,000 people, as many as 86 per...

03 Networking.
October 29, 2007... Newly-crowned vice-president of EMEA sales at enterprise wireless infrastructure vendor Meru Networks, David Kelly, has vowed to launch a major channel assault before the end of the year. Meru, a relative newcomer to the industry, has...

03 Networking.
October 29, 2007... Avaya has announced sales hit $1.4bn ([pounds sterling]699m) in its fourth quarter, the firm's highest level since the dotcom crash and a jump of nearly five per cent year-on-year. Total sales for 2007 at the New Jersey-based comms giant were...

03 Networking.
October 29, 2007... A recent survey of the UK VoIP market carried out by comms and networking dealer, Electronic Frontier (EFL), has raised questions over a perceived lack of awareness of the technology among resellers. EFL marketing executive Kevin Bethell...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
October 29, 2007... Call me a curmudgeonly old hack (go on, I dare you) but when I'm presented with something that's too good to be true I simply assume it's false. The other day I observed a panel of 16 year-olds from the International School of Vienna being...

11 Letters.(Letter to the editor)
October 29, 2007... SMEs need business continuity guidance The announcement by Sir Ian Blair on 9 October to the Home Affairs Select Committee on the extent of the current terrorist threat has placed business continuity planning back at the top of the business...

01 News.(supply and demand of Lenovo Group Ltd.)(Brief article)
October 29, 2007... Shortages of screens could spoil the key Christmas selling period for some laptop vendors as the pressure on getting product increases in the critical next few weeks. According to predictions from analyst IDC supply issues around displays...

01 News.
October 29, 2007... Supplies of the ASUS Eee PC mini notebook are expected to arrive in the channel by the middle of next month but in limited numbers. Demand is expected to outstrip supply for the much-hyped product in the run up to the Christmas period. ...

01 News.(opinions of Apple Inc. about Leopard)(Financial report)(Brief article)
October 29, 2007... As Apple releases the next incarnation of its operating system, Leopard, the vendor's dealers are looking forward to a bumper run-in to the Christmas season. One Apple premium reseller told MicroScope it had already taken substantial...

01 News.
October 29, 2007... Resellers are struggling to win the value argument with customers in vertical markets. That is according to a survey, which has revealed nearly 70 per cent of organisations base IT purchasing and expenditure decisions on cost. The...

01 News.
October 29, 2007... Telecoms kit vendor and UC evangelist Avaya has launched a zero per cent finance offer to allow SMB customers to lease and pay for kit and services over two years. But some observers have warned the move may be risky given the ongoing...