News

Network Infrastructure Solutions and Services

May 22, 2009 22 May'09
BT tussles with Ofcom over wholesale pricing

Ofcom has granted BT Openreach the right to raise the wholesale prices that it charges other operators for LLU line rental by just over 6% to £86.40 for a fully unbundled line, but BT has claimed the rise doesn’t go far enough.
May 22, 2009 22 May'09
Resellers must bulk up UC strategy to exploit recovery

Resellers that want to be in the best possible shape as the economy emerges from the recession should already be lining up on the starting blocks, with unified communications (UC) and process automation a key part of the recovery plan.
May 21, 2009 21 May'09
Brocade revenues rise but losses widen

Brocade has managed to beat the expectations of Wall Street with its revenue numbers for its second quarter claiming that its acquisition of Foundry is already paying off providing it with greater market share. For the three months that ended 2 May...
May 12, 2009 12 May'09
Nortel employees march on London

Former Nortel employees based at the firm's Harlow offices marched on parliament and the London offices of Ernst & Young today to protest over the way their redundancies were handled.

May 11, 2009 11 May'09
Nortel Q1 results covered in red ink

Struggling Nortel has blamed the economy for its current woes after posting losses for its first quarter. The Canadian telco, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, reported a 37% drop in revenues to $1.73bn and a net loss of $507mcompared ...
April 29, 2009 29 Apr'09
Redstone hints at new phase of development as CEO departs

Networking integrator Redstone has revealed its CEO, Martin Balaam, has left the company by "mutual consent" as the company fixes its sights on the "next phase in its development".
April 02, 2009 02 Apr'09
Avaya Azlan EMEA relationship not bound for UK

Avaya and Azlan have inked a pan-EMEA distribution agreement but according to Andy Gass, managing director of Azlan's UK parent.
April 01, 2009 01 Apr'09
Nortel closes crippling Alteon sale

Nortel and Radware have finalised the terms of their stalking horse deal by which the Israel-based security expert picked up Nortel's layer 4-7 application delivery switch business, Alteon, for the discount price of $18m.
March 31, 2009 31 Mar'09
Canalys sees bright spots in slowing enterprise infrastructure market

The recession is doing its bit to kill off large-scale traditional communications investments, but there are some growth areas out there, according to Canalys’ latest figures on the EMEA enterprise infrastructure market.
March 30, 2009 30 Mar'09
Nortel cuts 220 UK staff

Nortel has today cut 11% of its British workforce, or 220 jobs, with 87 redundancies at its Northern Ireland facility, MicroScope has learned.

March 25, 2009 25 Mar'09
Nortel relegated after 2-1 away defeat

In a sad reflection of the troubles affecting its parent and namesake, Nortel FC is assured of relegation from the Northern Ireland Amateur League Premiership following a 2-1 defeat away to rivals Dunmurry Rec.
March 25, 2009 25 Mar'09
ZyXEL teams up with security disti

Network access vendor ZyXEL is to make a move on the IP-CCTV sector after signing a partnership agreement with specialist surveillance kit disti and Panasonic house CCTV Center.
March 24, 2009 24 Mar'09
Nimans snaps up Rocom for £12.45m

Nimans has splashed out £12.45m to acquire Rocom from the ATC group ending months of uncertainty over the future of the voice distributor.
March 19, 2009 19 Mar'09
Cisco finally swoops on Pure

In what is becoming a busy week down at Cisco, the networking giant has splashed out $590m in stock for privately held consumer video specialist Pure Digital, with a further $15m to be doled out in retention-based equity incentives for continuing ...
March 18, 2009 18 Mar'09
D-Link launches global reseller scheme to develop solutions

D-Link has enhanced its partner programme along global line swith the aim of encouraging resellers to share knowledge with the aim of developing solutions that can increase the services revenue for partners.
March 17, 2009 17 Mar'09
Cisco partners must skill up for data centre push

Cisco is urging partners to start skilling up to meet demand for its Unified Computing System (UCS), a new computing architecture launched yesterday that knits together compute, network, storage access and virtualisation into a modular system.
March 13, 2009 13 Mar'09
Disruptive networkers spy opportunity on UK shores

Cisco boss John Chambers seems to have got it right. While the industry panics in the face of withering IT demand Chambers has hunkered down and stuck to his theory that as technological innovation carried the vendor through the murky days of the ...
March 13, 2009 13 Mar'09
UK plc demanding managed UC

Resellers offering unified comms solutions as a managed service will find favour with the business community, with 56% of UK organisations advocating a managed service approach, according to research by Siemens Enterprise Communications.
March 13, 2009 13 Mar'09
Digital Britain plan risks leaving UK in the slow lane

Independent watchdog Consumer Focus has become the latest body to lay into the government’s Digital Britain Interim Report, saying that comms minister Lord Carter’s plans lack vision, neglect consumer interests and risk leaving the UK in the ...
March 06, 2009 06 Mar'09
Alcatel-Lucent back in play

Twelve months have passed since Alcatel-Lucent last gathered its channel partners and customers together for its annual business forum. Although the Parisian backdrop remains the same, under the surface a lot has changed.
March 06, 2009 06 Mar'09
WiMAX still growing despite rush to LTE

The death of WiMAX technology at the hands of LTE may have been announced prematurely, says ABI Research. According to analysts, even though some key players had backed away from the technology, with Nortel ditching its mobile WiMAX business.
March 04, 2009 04 Mar'09
Alcatel-Lucent begins channel programme revamp

Streamlining partner engagement across its various business units will be the focus of Alcatel-Lucent's revamped channel programme, details of which began to emerge today.
March 03, 2009 03 Mar'09
Downturn drives demand for flexible working

The impact of the recession is already being felt in the demand for flexible working applications that will enable companies to cut costs.
February 25, 2009 25 Feb'09
Ex-Ingram director Patel joins 20:20 Mobile Group

Mobile phone distributor 20:20 has named Bhavesh Patel as its group commercial director, less than a month after he left IT broad liner Ingram Micro.
February 25, 2009 25 Feb'09
Recession catches up with Ethernet switching market

The deepening economic downturn is catching up with sectors previously thought to be quite resilient, according to the latest report on the Ethernet switch market from analysts at Infonetics Research.
February 25, 2009 25 Feb'09
Resellers urged to break down UC discussion

Comms dealers have been warned that they risk alienating potential customers if their pitches rely too heavily on still undefined concepts such as unified communications.
February 24, 2009 24 Feb'09
Nortel loses billions on Alteon sale

It has emerged that Nortel has effectively lost the entire value of its Alteon layer 4-7 application delivery switch business after revealing that last Friday's sale of the unit to Israeli comms specialist Radware netted it just $17.6m (£12m).
February 24, 2009 24 Feb'09
Fragmented communications wastes thousands

Research by Siemens Enterprise Communications has revealed compelling evidence that dealers should encourage SMEs to ramp up their unified comms spend.
February 23, 2009 23 Feb'09
Brocade eyes bigger slice of LAN market

Brocade has made clear its intention to aggressively hunt down business in the networking space and given its clearest hint yet that it aims to do a number on Cisco's market share.
February 20, 2009 20 Feb'09
Radware stalks Nortel assets

Application delivery solutions specialist Radware has pounced on parts of Nortel's Layer 4-7 Application Delivery business for an undisclosed sum under what is known as a 'stalking horse' asset purchase deal.
February 19, 2009 19 Feb'09
Target gets into broadband

Target Components and 3G network provider 3 have put their signatures to a distribution agreement that will see Target offering 3 mobile broadband starter kits alongside its wireless router and laptop offerings.
February 18, 2009 18 Feb'09
Brocade channel boss to drive Foundry integration

Brocade has promoted Barbara Spicek to the role of vice president worldwide channels, having previously held the role of senior director of partner sales and marketing for EMEA.
February 18, 2009 18 Feb'09
Alcatel-Lucent forms 4G alliance

Alcatel-Lucent has launched a global multi-vendor technology alliance designed to foster development of device, applications and content for 4G and LTE services. Launched at this week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) event and dubbed NG Connect, the ...
February 16, 2009 16 Feb'09
Ofcom plans to speed up wireless

Ofcom has proposed biting into parts of the spectrum bands operated by Vodafone and O2 in order to make good on the government’s promise to provide universal broadband in the UK within the next four years.
February 16, 2009 16 Feb'09
Mobile data demands to soar

Mobile internet usage is set to soar dramatically in spite of the severe recession, according to new research carried out on behalf of voice, video and data services specialist Tellabs.
February 16, 2009 16 Feb'09
KCOM culls 150 services jobs

KCom has today confirmed that as part of a cost-cutting drive, 150 services staff will lose their jobs across its managed services and contact centre business.
February 09, 2009 09 Feb'09
Blue Coat focuses on applications not just ports

Blue Coat believes it can shake up the networking channel with a product that focuses on application management rather than just the standard ports and ISP addresses.
February 06, 2009 06 Feb'09
Recession boosts uptake of managed services

The provision of managed services is likely to be one of the brighter spots in an otherwise difficult economic landscape this year and has the potential to become a safe haven for those channel partners that get their offerings right.
February 06, 2009 06 Feb'09
Even to a BT shareholder VoIP just makes sense

As a BT shareholder, I probably should not be saying this, but Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) seems pretty much a no-brainer in these straitened times.
February 06, 2009 06 Feb'09
Network at the heart of Digital Britain

Network infrastructure will form a key element of the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform's (BERR) plan for Digital Britain, which was released last month.
February 03, 2009 03 Feb'09
Information superhighway open despite snow, say UC specialists

As parts of the UK shut down yesterday after experiencing their heaviest snowfall since 1991, unified communications vendors have been talking up the benefits of collaborative and home-working solutions.
February 03, 2009 03 Feb'09
DiData swoops on Teksys

Hants-based Microsoft LAR Teksys has been bought by Dimension Data for an undisclosed sum barely 12 months after it was picked up by private equity money. In January 2008 serial entrepreneurs Alan Watkins and Kevin Lewis bought out the firm's ...
January 30, 2009 30 Jan'09
KCom cuts 150 staff

Over a hundred more jobs are to go at comms services group KCom's Integration and Managed Services unit after it saw its revenue slip by 10% over the nine months to the end of December.
January 22, 2009 22 Jan'09
Comstor ProCurve alliance to target Westcon channels

Comstor will target its existing partner base as well as resellers already working alongside its sister distributors within the Westcon Group when developing business for Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve brand.
January 21, 2009 21 Jan'09
Nortel can still have a bright future

Following the collapse of Canadian communications giant Nortel, analysts have been busily assessing just what went wrong and what lies ahead.
January 16, 2009 16 Jan'09
Nortel business won't go quietly, says channel

While analysts and pundits pick over Nortel's future after it filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, customers and channel partners are largely standing by their investments.
January 15, 2009 15 Jan'09
Comstor signs HP ProCurve

Westcon-owned Cisco distributor Comstor is to sign a distribution agreement with HP ProCurve that will bring to an end its virtual exclusivity on Cisco. ProCurve and Comstor confirmed exclusively to MicroScope that talks had been in progress between...
January 14, 2009 14 Jan'09
Nortel goes into administration

North America's largest communications manufacturer, Nortel Networks, has filed for protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in its native Canada and Chapter 11 in the US. As predicted earlier today, this brings a century of ...
January 12, 2009 12 Jan'09
Networking: what does 2009 hold?

The networking world finds itself in the position of being at the bleeding edge of an industry that prides itself on cutting through to the next way to speed up life and business processes.
January 08, 2009 08 Jan'09
Cisco ploughs into consumer channel

Cisco has ploughed headlong into the consumer channel with the launch of the Cisco Consumer Channel Network formed from the remnants of the Linksys channel. The new programme accompanies Cisco's launch of a home audio portfolio at CES Las Vegas, as ...
December 18, 2008 18 Dec'08
Redstone slashing costs after loss

IT and comms solutions provider Redstone is attempting to slash up to £7m from its cost base by the end of December after posting a net loss for the six months to the end of September.
December 11, 2008 11 Dec'08
Shakespeare, Toohey leave Westcon in board shake-out

Westcon Europe group executive vice president Barry Shakespeare and European financial director Jon Toohey have resigned, the distributor has announced.
December 08, 2008 08 Dec'08
Making the most of legacy systems

The widening credit crunch and fear of recession have led to a drop in confidence among IT buyers. New projects are being delayed or sliced into smaller pieces that are easier to pass through the purchasing and financial departments.
November 26, 2008 26 Nov'08
Affiniti blamed for KCOM revenue drop and losses

KCOM has blamed its integration arm for a fall in revenues during its fiscal first half year. More dramatic however was the group's £101m loss which resulted largely from a goodwill impairment charge but a £1m unpaid bill from Lehman ...
November 07, 2008 07 Nov'08
Cisco details Linksys channel strategy

Cisco has unveiled a small business division and products aimed specifically at companies with less than 250 users as it integrates the Linksys channel into its mainstream business.
November 03, 2008 03 Nov'08
Comstor slips Linksys kit into SMB line-up

Westcon-owned Cisco house Comstor has announced it is now handling the Linksys by Cisco Connected Office portfolio as part of its Cisco-SMB oriented product set.
October 29, 2008 29 Oct'08
Alcatel-Lucent shares rally as Verwaayen preps results

Shares in struggling Alcatel-Lucent have rallied today as recently-installed CEO Ben Verwaayen puts the finishing touches to his first earnings announcement in charge, scheduled to be released tomorrow.
October 17, 2008 17 Oct'08
Linksys name is no more

Having spent five years mulling over the future of its SOHO and consumer brand Linksys, Cisco quietly announced this morning that the division.
October 09, 2008 09 Oct'08
Cisco keeps mum on Linksys future

Cisco has continued to maintain its silence over the definitive future of the small business-focused side of its prosumer and small office Linksys brand after folding Linksys' SMB channel into the Cisco registered partner programme last month.
September 26, 2008 26 Sep'08
Affiniti parent KCOM latest to reveal Lehman Brother's hit

The fall-out from the collapse of Lehman Brothers continues to ripple across the channel with Affiniti and Kingston Communications parent KCOM warning it could be hit by £3m by the demise of the financial institution.
September 19, 2008 19 Sep'08
Call centres ring the changes

Call centres - with their endless queues, incomprehensible menus and automatic voice recognition systems - have often been regarded as the stuff of nightmares.
September 16, 2008 16 Sep'08
Alcatel-Lucent rolls out SME strategy

Alcatel-Lucent has announced it is to give business partners in the UK and Ireland increased assistance in addressing the SME sector with the launch of a new strategy aimed specifically at the small to medium end of the market.
September 05, 2008 05 Sep'08
Verwaayen calms troubled waters

Newly-appointed Alcatel-Lucent boss Ben Verwaayen has moved swiftly to calm shareholders still bitter over the tenure of his predecessor, Pat Russo, and has hinted to reporters that he could seek to turn the struggling comms giant around without ...
September 02, 2008 02 Sep'08
Verwaayen heralds Alcatel-Lucent turnaround

Alcatel-Lucent has appointed ex-BT head Ben Verwaayen as its new CEO just weeks after Verwaayen ruled himself out of the running.
August 28, 2008 28 Aug'08
Mobile broadband will force regulatory change

Telecoms and media analyst consultancy Analysys Mason has called for Ofcom to begin considering regulatory change as the dramatic growth in mobile data usage is altering the nature of the mobile proposition.
August 27, 2008 27 Aug'08
Alcatel-Lucent embarks on partner recruitment drive

Franco-American comms giant Alcatel-Lucent is ramping up its partner recruitment activities in the UK in a bid to encourage more specialist data and security resellers to sell its Omni Access Laptop Guardian and Web Services Gateway security ...
August 13, 2008 13 Aug'08
Linksys dealers told: join Cisco scheme or find another supplier

Linksys dealers that opt not to join Cisco's SMB programme when their existing scheme becomes extinct next month will have to find an alternative supplier for the small business market.
August 12, 2008 12 Aug'08
Linksys SMB partners join Cisco fold

Cisco's SMB channel could be diluted with up to 20,000 new resellers worldwide after the vendor announced plans to amalgamate the Linksys small business channel partner programme with its own and promote cross-selling opportunities.
August 08, 2008 08 Aug'08
Business as usual for Alcatel-Lucent

It did not take long after the merger for things to start going wrong for Alcatel-Lucent CEO Patricia Russo, who opted to leave the vendor last month after admitting she could no longer work with fellow board resignee chairman Serge Tchuruk.
April 04, 2008 04 Apr'08
Magic web's tawdry truth

Amazing what you can do on the web these days. For instance, you can upload a bunch of photos to Tagcow.com and get them all back accurately tagged with keywords like "beach", "rain", "nightclub" and "Aunt Emma".
April 04, 2008 04 Apr'08
Security is the key for remote working

Remote working is an increasingly popular choice for millions of people in the UK. It makes sense for increasing business productivity, boosting employee motivation, as well as the added bonus of helping to save the planet.
April 04, 2008 04 Apr'08
Cisco unveils plans to drive server farm programme

The influence of the internet is changing the timetable of large software releases, forcing vendors to brief resellers at a much earlier stage.
April 03, 2008 03 Apr'08
Motorola addresses concerns over splits

Motorola has assured its business partners they have nothing to fear from the imminent break-up of the communications giant. The company announced it was to divest itself of the struggling and unprofitable mobile handset division at the end of March.
April 02, 2008 02 Apr'08
Spending curb could push hosted services

Ahead of the inaugural EMEA Enterprise Networking and Communications Summit, to be hosted by Gartner in London towards the end of April.
January 28, 2008 28 Jan'08
Brick designs blueprint to build solid ProCurve

When HP ProCurve's UK country manager, Jon Weather all, hit the road at the tail end of July 2007, some in the channel rushed to paint his departure as the end of an era. But six months later, and with his successor now installed in the hot seat, ...
November 14, 2007 14 Nov'07
Brick to head up HP ProCurve in the UK

Hewlett-Packard is believed to be close to naming new UK country manager for its ProCurve networking division with Darryl Brick expected to take up the reins early next month.