According to the study 36 percent of firms surveyed had implemented next-generation firewalls to improve security or reduce IT spend, but already 57 percent said they were harder to manage and had increased their management workload.

Insecure CIOs

The biggest challenge was that an out-of-process change was creating a network or application outage, a problem that resellers could solve for nearly eight out of 10 (77%) clients if asked. For one fifth of the sample these ended in data breaches and 63 percent of respondents reported internal threats as a security concern.

AlgoSec’s European 2013 State of Network Security Report, based on a survey of 130 IT security and network operations professionals in April 2013, could become a white paper on sales opportunities for the channel, according to Paul Clark, AlgoSec’s regional director for the UK.

“Organisations are struggling with increasingly complex networks,” said Clark. “The biggest challenges for InfoSec and IT teams come with manual processes and poor visibility.”

Companies are exposed to the risk of outages and security breaches, often caused by their own employees and processes. On the other hand, increased security comes at the price of more changes, more policies to manage, and more complexity, according to user feedback.

“Moving away from manual processes and toward automated, centralised management of processes and policies will help organisations to fully realise the potential of next generation firewalls to improve overall security and reduce costs,” said Clark.

Around half (48%) of the CIOs questioned worried that employees were jeopardising security through data leaks and errors, while 24 percent were troubled by financially-motivated hackers.

Meanwhile, managing BYOD challenges has made life worse for 65 percent of the IT professionals quizzed. “It highlights the desperate need for end-users to simplify and automate security policy management,” said a spokesman. “This can give VARs a strong upselling opportunity with customers, in helping them get better control of their security.”

The Alvea service is for firms that need to vary their computing power at a moment’s notice as their business needs change. Cloud management vendor Flexiant will create a simple, branded, user interface to make it easy for service providers to create pay-as-you-go IT security and cloud services.

White label

The IaaS vendor wants 2,500 resellers to be able to white-label the service but it needed a simpler management interface to make it workable, said Neil Gardner, proposition manager at Alvea Services. “Choosing the right cloud management software was critical. We invested substantial time, energy and effort in looking at the various players in the market.  No other company was able to demonstrate the proven heritage and capability.”

Alvea said its on-demand, automated provisioning of cloud services will give resellers comprehensive billing and an omnipresent view of the infrastructure they control. Only Flexiant could offer an instant “out of the box” service fit for channel purposes, claimed Gardiner: “Our reseller offering is clearly central to our go-to-market strategy.”

Flexiant CEO George Knox said Alvea and its channel can capitalise on the current market for years to come. “Customers want transparency, and with Flexiant, they have it. This makes ALVEA Services more attractive to resellers,” he said.

Resellers can set their own pricing structure while only paying for what they are delivering to customers. The Flexiant billing and metering capability allows granular reporting on the time and extent of use. The billing model can be adapted to suit each VARs specific needs, claimed Knox, who promised that each partner will be able to personalise the look and feel of products to make them appear to be their own creation.

Scania (GB) and its network of dealers in the UK have adopted the AppSense User Virtualization Platform (UVP) as part of an infrastructure refresh to their UK dealer system, to increase performance management, provide a consistent end-user experience for its 1,200 UK based users and extend the value of their existing Citrix XenApp infrastructure.

Wide load

Scania’s existing infrastructure was aging and in need of replacement and it was looking for a fully-managed desktop infrastructure to cover both its own requirements and those of its franchised dealers across the UK.   Ultima Business Solutions, together with AppSense, were selected to refresh the entire infrastructure as the company wanted to improve user experience with an efficient, consistent environment.

The truck maker also wanted to increase performance and control of the company’s Citrix and Microsoft-based IT infrastructure. It will integrate Scania’s Citrix and Microsoft environments to create personalised workspaces for its employees, regardless of location or device.

The AppSense UVP will also allow Scania’s IT team to maintain greater control over key computing resources such as CPU, memory, licencing, and storage. This, said Ultima, would result in a “consistent, high-quality user experience that also reduces infrastructure costs by maximising the number of users per server”.

John Armstrong, project manager at Ultima, said that AppSense has been “crucial in allowing Ultima’s consultants to develop a solution which has cut log in times to less than half, as well as dynamically optimising applications to provide a swift and reliable user experience”.

Scania’s IT director Derek Brooks said Ultima had been selected to provide a new Citrix farm for its dealer network.

“One of the key deliverables of the solution was to cut down on user login time.  By using technologies such as AppSense, we have seen a dramatic reduction in login times for the users of the system along with improved ease of user administration,” he said. “The feedback from our users is the key to the success of the system and we have had users requesting access to the new system while in the pilot phase due to the performance increase we can now provide.”

The service will use the Fluidata Service Exchange Platform providing last mile connectivity to underpin O2 Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK. O2 needed the extra resilience as more and more data travels over the company’s Wi-Fi network.

Extended reach

O2 will use Fluidata’s Service Exchange Platform in order to extend the reach of its O2 Wi-Fi services in the UK. The Service Exchange Platform interconnects through 10 datacentres across the UK.

Fluidata will provide space in its new datacentre facility in Manchester, doubling datacentre capacity for O2 Wi-Fi. The Telecity Joule House datacentre, which opened in 2013 as part of a network upgrade for Fluidata, has 3.5 Megawatt capacity and 2N power resilience, and is capable of providing up to 20 Kilowatts per rack.

The Service Exchange Platform aggregates connections across 16 of the major carriers (including O2), and links more than 50 ISPs through the platform. This means that service providers such as O2 don’t have to build into new areas, but can use the combined networks of other providers on the platform, reaching new customers in previously inaccessible areas.

Fluidata MD Piers Daniell said that geographic diversity and resilience is critical to a network’s future.

“O2 is using state-of-the-art technology and failover services to make sure it gives customers the best possible service,” he said.

“Our Service Exchange Platform means that ISPs can offer a service to consumers in areas previously beyond their reach. It’s good news for businesses and consumers, as they have a wider choice of networks. O2 Wifi is deploying a uniform and free service for all its consumers so it needs to be able to deploy hotspots wherever customers demand them,” said Daniell.

MedeAnalytics, Shaping Cloud and Advanced 365 have been confirmed as accredited suppliers to the government initiative, lengthening the growing list of approved providers.

What’s in Store

MedeAnalytics has been recognised by the Cabinet Office for its suite of online performance tools that promise to give commissioners instant insight into local health economies.

Shaping Cloud is an authority on Microsoft’s Office 365 following its award of Impact Level 2 accreditation earlier this year and is now listed in the G-Cloud Store. The Manchester-based national cloud consultancy promises to guide public sector bosses to make less disastrous decisions over the planning, migration and delivery of cloud-based office productivity software.

London’s IT managed services and cloud provider Advanced 365 offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and a range of specialist cloud services through the online CloudStore.

As an accredited supplier MedeAnalytics could save the NHS money by introducing each regional authority to web-based applications like Clinical Commissioner and FT Navigator, said Paul Fitzsimmons, managing director of MedeAnalytics.

“Clinical commissioning groups and support units can use our online performance tools to get information from across the local health economy,” he said.

This will help to rationalise costs much more efficiently. The hosted informatics systems can be set up quickly and will give more power to clinicians and front line staff, who are better placed to benefit patients and taxpayers, according to Fitzsimmons.

Shaping Cloud anticipates saving time and money for over 30,000 public sector organisations, according to managing director Carlos Oliveira. He believes that now is the right time and said he was encouraged by the cabinet statements on using more SMEs on public sector cloud projects.

“We are hopeful that more government projects will be spread throughout the UK and really boost the SME services market outside of the South East,” Oliveria stated.

Neil Cross, managing director of Advanced 365, is delighted its IaaS and range of specialist cloud services are available on the G-Cloud III’s online CloudStore.  “Advanced is proud to have been selected to be able to offer its services on the latest G-Cloud iii,” he said. “The new framework allows us to extend our cloud offerings to public sector organisations, and enables them to procure IT services without a lengthy tendering process, which will importantly allow them to become more efficient.”

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, said, “G-Cloud brings a step-change in the way government buys IT. It’s quicker, cheaper and more competitive.”

Dave O’Callaghan joins VMware as senior vice president of global channels and alliances. Previously, he was employed at Cisco as worldwide commercial sales vice president as well as having responsibilities in worldwide distribution.

Visionary strategist

In his new role, O’Callaghan will lead the vision and strategy for VMware partners globally across all routes to market, including solution providers, service providers, distributors, OEMs, system integrators and outsourcers, and independent software vendors (ISVs). The news comes just as VMware formally launches its “Project Zephyr” vCloud Hybrid Service public cloud.

“Dave’s wealth of experience with many high-profile sales leadership roles at enterprise IT organisations will be invaluable to our robust partner community,” said Dan Smoot, senior vice president for Global Customer Operations at VMware. “I’m pleased to have Dave lead our world-class global partner organisation to help partners deliver solutions for the software-defined data centre, hybrid cloud and mobile workspace that simplify IT infrastructure for customers.”

O’Callaghan said he was relishing the opportunity to work on pushing VMware’s software-defined plans with VMware’s resellers.

“I am looking forward to working with our partners to provide predictable, consistent and profitable practices to enable us together to deliver innovative and comprehensive software-defined solutions to organisations of all sizes,” he said. “I am excited to collaborate closely with the dynamic and diverse partner community at VMware, and look forward to our continued mutual success as we help our customers solve their biggest IT infrastructure challenges of today and in the future.”

O’Callaghan has held several senior sales and indirect sales roles at Cisco Systems, Hitachi Data Systems and Memorex Telex, working with a range of companies from SMBs to large enterprises. In the last two years, he has been running his own consulting business helping firms fine-tune their manufacturing, distribution, and reseller channels.

Dell’s abandonment public cloud services was inevitable, according to UK analysts. “I’m honestly not that surprised,” said Simon Robinson, senior VP of storage and information management at 451 Research. “Dell’s efforts seemed to be more about testing the water than an all-out assault. It was always in a delicate position as it supplies some of the hyperscale cloud providers.”

Still committed

Dell’s abandonment opens up opportunity for its partners with experience of cloud installations. A spokeswoman for the company said Dell planned to continue developing technologies and working with cloud implementers.

“Dell continues to invest and contribute to the OpenStack community and will continue to offer and expand Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution for private cloud,” she said.

When the company delayed the launch of its OpenStack-based cloud for another year, it was an ominous signs of a company struggling to get its public cloud services off the ground, according to the 451’s Robinson.

“The biggest winner in the goldrush were those that sold supplies to the gold miners,” he said. “I think Dell has sensibly concluded that it can make more money as an arms dealer here.”

However, Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom thought Dell was suffering from the timidity and short-sightedness of its nervous investors. ”This is the result of shareholders, who don’t give a damn about anything but money, stalling the progression of a company,” he said.

If Dell had gone private smoothly, he argued, then it could have prioritised its investments and direction. Strategy decisions would have been  based on what was best for the organisation, he said, but uncertainties around Dell means that buyers are keeping away. “Michael [Dell] can’t make any positive long-term strategic decisions, as he doesn’t even know if he will still be with the company in a few months’ time,” said Longbottom.

Dell has been forced to cut what may be seen as unnecessary costs in order to produce a crowd-pleasing set of figures. This could be costly as VMware becomes more of a competitor,  with the new EMC Federation growing and VCE getting stronger, he added.

“A public cloud offering at this stage is just plain wrong as the services to be offered on it are completely dependent on what the company does,” said Longbottom. “Under Michael and private ownership, it will be an IBM and HP chaser and will have software offerings.”

Longbottom predicted that a “strip-‘em” venture capitalist buyout will see Dell restricted to being a PC company, which it hasn’t been for a long time. “Hardware doesn’t need a cloud – why build one if all that is going to happen is a fire sale of hardware offerings followed by a sale of the remaining intellectual assets of the brand,” he exp;ained.

Dell has to go private to survive, he predicted. “That Icahn is muddying the waters shows a complete disregard for the future of Dell and its customers. This move is purely an investment maximisation argument,” said Longbottom, “it’s capitalism at its worst.”

Eaton says its verification of storage will help partner to reassure customers over their data protection and business continuity offering.

Reduced complexity

It’s all about simplifying the issues for customers in a time of galloping complexity, said Maria Olson, head of global alliances at NetApp. “Together we can help our shared customers increase the uptime of their cloud and storage platforms.”

Eaton’s latest software can monitor and manage NetApp’s unified storage and perform a controlled shutdown to protect data integrity when power is compromised. Eaton now claims to integrate with all major virtualisation platforms, including VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat and Xen platforms.

VARs who want to move their client’s services to a backup site or manage their workload will have a much easier time of it, claimed Eaton’s software product manager Tatu Valjakka.

“Pre-validated software speeds deployment, streamlines support and simplifies management,” he said.

www.eaton.eu/virtualisation . To learn more about Eaton’s power quality products, visit  .

UKFast, Softcat and Phoenix are all to take part in the latest phase of the programme that aims to diversify government supplier lists by easing the way for SMEs to pitch for tenders.

SME Too

UKFast is to be a supplier of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Phoenix will offer the same as well as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and specialist cloud services. Meanwhile, Softcat has provided AirWatch’s enterprise mobility management (EMM) service to control all the mobile assets of G-Cloud users from one console.

Public sector computing is long overdue some competition, said Lawrence Jones, UKFast’s CEO, as the G-Cloud programme opened its doors to smaller firms to provide services. “It’s also a tremendous achievement for us,” said Jones, who also announced a company data centre complex, MaNOC 5, 6, and 7.

Softcat aimed to offer services to manage the proliferation of BYOD (bring your own device) schemes through AirWatch’s tools for mobile device, application and content management.

“Softcat’s approach to the G-Cloud is to source and introduce services in high demand, within an affordable price bracket,” promised Andy Bruen, Softcat’s public sector frameworks manager.

Ian Evans, AirWatch’s MD, pledged that the tax payer would benefit from IT that was regulated by, “Solutions that allow public sector organisations to benefit from the efficiency and productivity opportunities mobile working has to offer.”

Figures released by the Cabinet Office show a 50 percent rise in G-Cloud services procurement in the last month with reported sales across both G-Cloud I and G-Cloud II frameworks now stands at over £18M.

The G-Cloud framework has made it easier for civil servants to find alternative suppliers of IT and services, said Peter Bertram, Phoenix’s executive chairman. “More public sector organisations are exploring and exploiting the benefit of Cloud via the G-Cloud framework, which gives them the opportunity to select from suppliers with clear pricing and service deliverables,” said Bertram.

Under a five-year agreement Sabio will guarantee operations under an end-to-end service level agreement. Sabio will provide support for the building society’s customer service systems at a predictable ongoing cost under the contract. Neither party has divulged the cost of the contract.

As well as providing a fully managed service, including standard support and solution upgrades, Sabio will assume responsibility for elements of onsite tier one and tier two troubleshooting, as well as the initial recruitment and ongoing management of suitable technical personnel to look after new telecoms technologies deployed at Yorkshire Building Society.

Technologies covered will include the building society’s core Avaya Aura communications platform, Avaya Proactive Contact, Verint Impact 360 Workforce Optimisation solutions and Nuance IVR software.

“We’re committed to making it easy and simple for our customers to do business with Yorkshire Building Society in ways that are most convenient for them, and we achieve that by continually investing in the right people, processes and technology,” said Stephen Mulley, Head of Yorkshire Building Society Telephony Infrastructure.

“As our customer service technologies become more complex, it makes sense for us to work with a best practice contact centre specialist that is accountable for the technical performance of our customer service infrastructure. We’re delighted to have engaged Sabio in a long-term managed services capacity to ensure the end-to-end performance of these telecoms technologies,” he said.

Sabio Director Kenneth Hitchen said that his company had spent the last 12 years developing and fine-tuning “people, processes and tools to recognise, diagnose and resolve incidents to minimise business impact”.

“We look forward to a continued successful partnership, and realising further value through the delivery of our comprehensive managed service agreement.”