MicroScope articles from September 2008

MicroScope archives from September 2008

13 Back Pages.(dialogue with Andrew Fourie)(Interview)
September 1, 2008... Five Minute Interview - Andrew Fourie, UK and Ireland country manager, Astaro (www.astaro.co.uk) What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? Best: My parents always said what goes around, comes around. Worst: When I...

15 Columns.
September 1, 2008... Backup strategies for SMBs - the reseller role Chris James, EMEA marketing director for Overland Storage For small to medium-sized businesses, price plays an important factor in selecting a backup strategy, as well as the seamless...

10 Features.
September 1, 2008... Microscope - Reseller 2.0 Davey Winder [intro] Davey Winder asks whether web-based services represent a realistic and profitable proposition for the reseller as we enter the Web 2.0 age [body] When e-commerce reared its really rather pretty...

15 Columns.
September 1, 2008... According to Ship's Miscellany the five most commonly lost things are 1) the car keys 2) my patience 3) the mobile phone 4) those sodding car keys again (I had them just a minute ago) 5) that memory stick - you know the...

01 News.
September 1, 2008... When the announcement came over the wires that Norwegian business software specialist Mamut was the buyer of the UK operations of MYOB, the name might have been unfamiliar to a few people in the channel. Among those channel players which...

01 News.
September 1, 2008... The long awaited embrace of Vista by the business community appears to be picking up speed with more widespread adoption of Microsoft's most recent OS release. It might have taken 18 months to arrive but for those weary from the wait there...

01 News.
September 1, 2008... Etailers and retailers have been the first to lose out on notebook and netbook sales to the telcos channel but if B2B resellers can overcome issues with selling data tariffs they may level the playing field before their rivals move onto the...

01 News.
September 1, 2008... As the financial press pores over the pound's continuing slide against both the euro and the US dollar, distributors and resellers are keeping a close eye on the situation and steeling themselves to make sudden changes to their pricing regimes....

18 Interview.(dialogue with Mike Morgan)(Interview)
September 8, 2008... Mike Morgan, COO, Foundation Network Limited What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? * "Don't dwell on the past, learn from it." So said one of my flying instructors after a particularly poor landing on my...

15 Columns.
September 8, 2008... Businesses today are in danger of drowning in the data they generate, use and store. As a result, organisations need to adopt effective data management strategies not only for the efficiency of their own businesses but also to comply with the...

15 Columns.
September 8, 2008... High street sales feel the pinch of credit crisis IT has so far bucked the economic decline, but a drop in retail could halt growth The words "credit crunch" have become a popular conversation starter over the past six months and with...

15 Columns.
September 8, 2008... A very alarming state of affairs Why is there no public outcry over the case of the British hacker facing extradition to the US, asks Chris Bidmead On 29 August, The Daily Telegraph featured a pleasantly grinning Barack Obama on the...

01 News.
September 8, 2008... The world of security could well be likened to that of insurance, but for those who never thought they would need to cash in their policy, the past few weeks have shown the consequences of failing to protect data. Prison records, Ministry...

10 Features.
September 8, 2008... Standfirst ShoreTel CEO John Combs tells Alex Scroxton how keeping his customers onside has led to building a committed channel that is managing the tricky transition to the IP-centric world. Body A year on from its IPO, life in...

10 Features.
September 8, 2008... Consumer revolution Apple's success in bridging the divide between consumer electronics and traditional IT is the beginning of a bigger trend towards convergence, creating new opportunities for resellers. Billy MacInnes reports These...

15 Columns.
September 8, 2008... By combining services and client/server software, providers can offer customers enhanced utility, choice and flexibility An evolution in software and services We hold a lot of events that allow me to spend time with customers and...

01 News.
September 8, 2008... If ever there was an argument for ensuring that a vendor has a clear channel strategy and a consistent message for its partners it must surely be encapsulated in the guise of Lenovo UK. While the vendor announced a 26% increase in EMEA...

09 Tech Traders.
September 8, 2008... Screen's impressive resolution and innovative technology to improve colour and clarity will appeal to professional users LCD monitor displays clear benefits There was a time when buying a large monitor was merely a dream for most...

18 Interview.
September 15, 2008... What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? A previous manager once told me to assess everything I do and ask myself "Is this making me money or costing me money?". What is the best book you've read? The Outsider...

10 Features.
September 15, 2008... As the fear of recession and a growing preoccupation with green IT start to bite, the new watchword in the datacentre is efficiency. After 63 quarters of growth, during which time technology has become cheaper and business demands in IT...

15 Columns.
September 15, 2008... Not a week goes by without a press story about data security. One of the benefits of all this attention is that information security is now firmly on the business agenda. Resellers with the right expertise and services have a significant...

15 Columns.
September 15, 2008... In 2007, Taiwan-based Asus decided to take a gamble and introduce a new type of portable computer into the marketplace, called the Asus Eee PC. It was a Linux-based clamshell-style laptop sporting a 7in screen and Asus positioned it as a...

15 Columns.
September 15, 2008... Recent data loss fiascos have ensured that businesses are taking a much closer look at how electronic information is being stored - investing in technology that protects data from being lost or destroyed. Although coming mainly as a...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... There is a real tendency among some people to throw the baby out with the bath water. You can see it with the reaction in some quarters to the credit crunch and the same is true of the response to the question of IT skills. When the...

01 News.
September 15, 2008... In reaction to exchange rate pressures, Hewlett-Packard and Acer have announced plans to raise prices on desktops and servers, and laptops, respectively. In the past month alone, the pound has fallen heavily against the dollar on the spot...

01 News.(Morse)(Financial report)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... Morse has acknowledged that its latest financial results are "disappointing", after posting significant losses and a marginal decline in revenue. For the 12 months to 30 June 2008, the UK integrator made a loss before tax of [pounds...

01 News.
September 15, 2008... After more than five years as IBM's head of business partners in the UK and Ireland, Simon Pendlebury is to step down and move across to lead the hardware business at Big Blue. A successor has yet to be found but MicroScope understands that...

01 News.(briefs)(IDC)(Survey)
September 15, 2008... An IDC survey predicts that while not immune to the downturn, the services market in western Europe will grow at nearly 5% over the next five years, reaching $249bn by 2012. Businesses in the region are looking for more predictability of IT...

01 News.
September 15, 2008... When the Home Office Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) drew up a list last week of sectors that still required migrant workers, IT was noticeably absent. Clearly the list is designed for purposes other than just filling skills gaps and...

01 News.
September 15, 2008... There is a continual debate in the channel about just how much vendors know about their resellers and distributor partners. The experience of the UK channel might well be echoed in comments made by their counterparts in the Canadian market....

01 News.
September 15, 2008... Is the IT industry starting to feel the effects of the credit crunch and economic downturn? Until recently, most people in the industry have given the impression IT is somehow immune to the worst effects of any slowdown in the general economy,...

09 Tech Traders.(Powergorilla)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... Portable device recharges notebooks while on the move Keep laptops going with Powergorilla Why is it that your laptop always seems to run out of power when you are in the middle of something important? Apart from being highly...

09 Tech Traders.
September 15, 2008... Sound quality to shout about Over the past couple of years, the number of sound systems attempting to imitate the iPod has sky-rocketed. There are plenty of brands trying to take advantage of the "I" theme by appealing to impulse...

09 Tech Traders.(Soyntec)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... Soyntec's docking station offers added value with USB hub and hard drive controller More than just a laptop stand There are certain products that simply seem to turn up in a corporate environment, but when you think about it should be...

12 Soap.
September 22, 2008... What is the best/worst advice you have ever received and from whom? "Good people cut through crap." Excellent advice I received from Neville Davis, the chief executive officer of Compel. What is the best book you have ever read? ...

15 Columns.(training for information technology professionals)
September 22, 2008... Just five years ago, training in the best-practice IT processes laid out by the ITIL framework were just a small speck on the map of IT qualifications in the UK. Fast-forward to 2008 and the ITIL Foundation course has become one of the most...

10 Features.
September 22, 2008... The potential impact of Microsoft's entry into the x86 server virtualisation space has generated mixed reactions from both industry watchers and the channel. The new offering, Hyper-V (previously codenamed Viridian), comprises hypervisor...

15 Columns.
September 22, 2008... Despite many organisations running anything between four and seven different backup products these days, backup remains a major pain-point for users. Analysts and consultants say it's an area in which customers are still willing to invest. ...

15 Columns.
September 22, 2008... Consumerisation is one of the coming trends in IT and, as in so many cases, it's being lumbered with an ugly word that's designed to cover all manner of uses and abuses. At heart, it concerns the pressure on IT hardware and software providers...

09 Tech Traders.(LSI Corp.)(MegaRAID SAS/SATA)
September 22, 2008... If you think of the world of storage as a jigsaw, then the role played by the LSI MegaRAID SAS/SATA is a crucial one. Customers are finally starting to understand that storage is a solution with many components and the interconnects between...

01 News.(targeting the laptop on gaming community)
September 22, 2008... A few years ago the idea of a laptop targeted at the gaming community might have caused a few smirks. Back then with desktops in price free-fall, the idea of anyone paying a premium was something that seemed incredibly unusual. But the...

01 News.
September 22, 2008... What a week that was, with banks collapsing, others forced into mergers and the uncertainty on the markets continuing to cause unrest. The agenda was set the weekend before last when Lehman Brothers ran into trouble, followed by AIG and...

01 News.
September 22, 2008... The meltdown in the global financial market has created a tidal wave of uncertainty among IT buyers which is dramatically altering the prospect lists of resellers and integrators. The collapse of Lehman Brothers and the troubles at Merrill...

01 News.
September 22, 2008... Microsoft has widened its public sector licensing discount scheme to allow resellers to sell competitive licences to smaller organisations with five PCs or more. The discount licensing options have previously only been available to large...

01 News.
September 22, 2008... Microsoft LAR Teksys has acquired Technology Made Simple Ltd (Tech MS) in a move that will bolster its credentials in the virtualisation market. The purchase of London-based Tech MS for an undisclosed sum gives Teksys a reseller with...

01 News.
September 22, 2008... The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) used the powers set down in the Copyright and Patents Act for the first time to support an anti-piracy raid at an address in Becton, East London, following a tip-off that counterfeit product was...

01 News.
September 22, 2008... Having waited for almost a year and a half, the changes in the law that were designed to crack down on software pirates and protect intellectual property are being used to remove sources of counterfeit product from the UK channel. The...

01 News.
September 22, 2008... Call centres - with their endless queues, incomprehensible menus and automatic voice recognition systems - have often been regarded as the stuff of nightmares. However, last week's Call Centre Expo demonstrated that the experts understand the...

10 Features.(trends in securities industry)
September 22, 2008... One of the most common words that crops up in discussions about the security market is 'transition,' referring to the move from a reactive to proactive industry trying to stop threats before they wreak havoc. Although that shift has been...

12 Soap.(financial crises)(Brief article)
September 22, 2008... Thanks Darling It is hard to find anything to laugh about at the moment, unless you have a great deal of money in the bank and are planning to launch a career as a property magnate Quite a few resellers have moaned about the slip made by...

13 Back Pages.(interview with the worker of Clarity)(Interview)
September 29, 2008... What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? The best advice I ever received was from my boss at Clarity, Roger Butterworth, who said: "If you miss your number, don't hide from it learn from it and don't do it again." ...

19 Analysis.(data dedeuplication technology in storage technology industry)
September 29, 2008... The fast-growing storage technology provides a great opportunity for resellers that can map solutions to users' needs How to demystify data deduplication When it comes to data deduplication technology, the opportunities for resellers...

01 News.(Rob Scott of Colubris Networks Inc.)
September 29, 2008... When Rob Scott joined wireless LAN specialist Colubris in 2007 he found a firm that was decidedly on edge. Having made a few false starts with CEOs in the past, the vendor wanted to make sure it had the right man, and Scott found himself...

10 Features.(impact of iPhone on business)
September 29, 2008... There can be little doubting the impact that the Apple iPhone, and especially the newly released 3G version, has had on the consumer market as far as the mobile phone sector is concerned. Richard Hales, UK and Ireland country manager with...

15 Columns.(usage of storage area networks in software industry)
September 29, 2008... Organisations often buy extra storage capacity when they are sitting on unused disk space. Why? Because the way the gigabytes have been allocated does not allow for flexibility, and as a result some applications might be using a small...

15 Columns.
September 29, 2008... Log management is not a new concept. In the 1980s it was the primary mechanism for fault analysis and management of computer systems. The sheer success of log data nearly killed it off before it really took off. The cacophony of log formats and...

01 News.
September 29, 2008... Financial crisis could lead to higher rates of consolidation among ICT companies Channel will feel the pinch The banking industry collapse which sent shockwaves through the global economy could have severe repercussions for all...

15 Columns.(Bermuda)
September 29, 2008... Bermuda has to be one of the very few sun-soaked islands to pass a law about the minimum length for skirts. I'm not sure if this is out of a profoundly felt moral sense, or whether it's so that opportunistic policemen can patrol promenades with...

09 Tech Traders.
September 29, 2008... Now and again a product arrives that reminds you of how things used to be in the days when people got excited about release dates. The current excitement, certainly in the graphics design market, is around the arrival of Adobe Creative...

15 Columns.
September 29, 2008... The four faces of Green IT for the channel By Andy Dow, UK Channel Director, Dell In business, we're always listening to customers and trying to understand what they want. The ability to be 'green' has quickly emerged as one of the...

01 News.
September 29, 2008... As thousands of out-of work bankers get on their bikes this week, a survey carried out by IT recruitment consultancy Hays Information Technology has revealed another reason for the IT industry to be cheerful in the face of the growing downturn....

09 Tech Traders.
September 29, 2008... One of the most common reactions to vendor attempts to stamp out piracy is that after the initial headlines have been written and the furore died down the guilty parties often return to their law-breaking ways. So it should come as a shock...

13 Back Pages.(use of technology in Falkirk Council Education Services )
September 29, 2008... 2228407 Falkirk: online system for mathematical attainment Falkirk Council Education Services wishes to procure an online system to support pupils' mathematical attainment for its 8 secondary schools and Carronshore School, which...