Opinion

Opinion

• Garden leave - can an employer dig itself out of a hole?

  When it comes to senior or key staff leaving it's often the case that employers will put the employee on 'garden leave' - they'll be paid during their notice period whilst being kept at home and away from the office, contacts and the business.  Continue Reading

• How press releases get bonged off - PR

  An email arrives in our in-box, explaining why and how [name withheld] is helping the channel make the transition from selling hardware and software to selling services.  Continue Reading

• Time to rally behind core Cisco business, says Comstor

  Cisco distie Comstoris speaking up for its vendor partner after John Chambers used his keynote at the recent New Orleans partner summit to reaffirm the vendor's commitment to its core switching and routing business.  Continue Reading

• Out of tune Zune player fades out

  Can it really be true? Will the Zune really be no more? Such are the rumours that Microsoft is preparing to pull the plug on its iPod killer a mere four years and four months after its launch. And yet, it all seemed so different back then.  Continue Reading

• Health and safety is not for the bored - it's for the board

  The recent successful prosecution of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings in February should send shivers down the spine of any business where there is a risk of death in the workplace.  Continue Reading

• IT investment whether forecast - cloudy with a chance of pain

  John Appleby, CEO of cloud consultancy Saaspoint, the cloud opportunities are there for the taking In a sense, we are the channel! Saaspoint operates as a centre of excellence for developing AppExchange and Force.com applications.  Continue Reading

• Careful what you say, social networking isn't above the libel laws

  The Internet may represent a faster, more immediate method of communication and means of providing information but when it comes to the law it can be just as dangerous as print in a newspaper or careless words on the radio or TV.  Continue Reading

• Channel could make its fortune reselling the cloud, says Alvea

  Distributor Computerlinks says its Alvea cloud and managed services can be rebranded by resellers and sold as part of their own portfolio. Here David Ellis, its director of new technology and services, argues the case for white labelling the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Say it ain't so Joe! Calyx CTO says cloud computing is nothing more than a marketing campaign -

  Joe Mayhew CTO at medium sized managed service provider Calyx Group, says the cloud is an artificial construct. I think. What will Cloud Computing mean for the IT channel, Joe? The Cloud is nothing more than a marketing creation.  Continue Reading

• Cloud has a silver lining for the reseller, hints Clodagh Murphy at Eclipse

  Here's Clodagh Murphy, director of Eclipse Internet, answering your questions about the impact of the cloudburst that will soon engulf us all. What will Cloud Computing mean for the IT channel?  Continue Reading

• The reseller channel could be in big trouble when the IT industry clouds over

  Really Simple Systems (I like this company already, just by the sound of its name) doesn't deal with the channel. So it can afford to be brutally honest. The verdict of John Paterson (pictured) Really Simple Systems' CEO, could make uncomfortable ...  Continue Reading

• Trust the Government

  Today's posting is another revisiting of a recent topic. Hopefully readers will remember the story of 24 January that covered draft legislation that would have impacted - inadvertently and adversely - employee share schemes.  Continue Reading

• Styling tips for cool summer data centres

  It's going to be a barbeque summer. What better way to spend those sweltering summer afternoons than cooling off in a modish data centre?  Continue Reading

• DHL needs to sharpen up its act, if this email is anything to go by

  Here's an email that just came from DHL apparently. If this is a level of their professionalism, they should be a bit worried. Dear customer! The parcel was send your home address. And it will arrice within 7 bussness day. More information and the ...  Continue Reading

• Networkers count cost of Japanese earthquake

  Millions of people across Japan are this evening counting the cost of a major earthquake and tsunami, which struck the northern part of the country just before 6am GMT on Friday.  Continue Reading

• Chaos and opportunity - Wyse's take on the schizoid nature of cloud

  Here's David Angwin, director of marketing at Wyse, with his take on the schizoid nature of the cloud. "Organisations can typically see the benefits of cloud computing but a 100 per cent true cloud solution is still a long way away for most.  Continue Reading

• iPad is a curse for Acer and a blessing for Dell

  Acer has reason to curse the iPad. Not long ago, the Taiwanese vendor was riding the crest of the netbook wave and its notebooks were making serious inroads into the consumer market. The strength of its consumer products helped propel Acer into ...  Continue Reading

• Rescuers still hopeful of reaching buried story caught in a perfect corporate jargon storm

  Six days after being submerged under a downpour of corporate jargon, rescuers still haven't given up hope of rescuing a vaguely interesting story.  Continue Reading

• d-d-d-data rules

  Last December this blog detailed the first fines handed out by the Information Commissioner for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. Those fines may have been the first, but they clearly aren't to be the last.  Continue Reading

• Software isn't the same as music or video

  The submissions are coming in from the industry to the Hargreaves Review to ensure that as the recommendations around protecting intellectual property are made the software world will have made sure it's had a chance to get the right points across.  Continue Reading

• HP chief plans WebOS on every machine but do users want it?

  HP CEO Apotheker is reported to have revealed plans to include the WebOS on every PC the vendor ships from 2012 onwards. Not that it's getting rid of Windows, you understand, but it will ship WebOs alongside the Microsoft product on every machine.  Continue Reading

• Will the Cloud create a suffocating atmosphere for resellers?

  In the age of IT as a utility, is the box standard reseller doomed? This is one of many questions that Cloud Computing raises for the IT reseller. What should they do? Get out and start retraining as estate agents or drug dealers? Move up the value ...  Continue Reading

• Five minute interview: Ian Wells, Veeam

  An interview with Ian Wells, of Veeam  Continue Reading

• Generation Gmail

  A recent survey commissioned by email management company, Mimecast, has found that corporate email accounts are being shunned by those aged under 25 in favour of personal email accounts when it comes to the sending of business email.  Continue Reading

• Who's been mis-selling domestic broadband connections?

  Up to 70% of SMEs in the UK are still relying on domestic rather than business grade broadband connections, and collectively could be wasting up to £357m a month.  Continue Reading

• Should employers leave staff to their own smart devices?

  Interesting story today about the failure of employers to come to terms with the way employees are connecting to corporate networks with their own mobile devices.  Continue Reading

• Need some R&D? Run a competition

  So many times a competition is actually a mechanism for a company to get a new logo, mission statement or campaign done on the cheap.  Continue Reading

• Jail for conman in latest Cisco parts fraud

  How easy is it to scam Cisco? A walk in the park, apparently. Long-time readers of Network Noise may remember the case of an Arizona restaurateur, who was jailed last October after bilking Cisco out of $20m worth of fraudulent orders by submitting ...  Continue Reading

• Retirement comes closer

  Further to a posting on Business Man on 29 November, the Government has now published the draft form of the Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Age Provisions) Regulations 2011.  Continue Reading

• Why the Cloud is smoking Part 1

  As part of an investigation into Cloud Computing, your correspondent found himself in a prison, composed entirely of fags. It's National No-Smoking Day, apparently. People like your columnist are being targeted in a government funded clamp down.  Continue Reading

• Resellers, get into voice coaching, says Plantronics

  On Tuesday Network Noise sat down at UC Expo for an interesting chat with Plantronics EMEA vice president and managing director Philip Vanhoutte. As I'm sure you don't need telling, Plantronics made its name developing peripheral headset, microphone...  Continue Reading

• International Women's Day web site hit by DoS attacks

  It says something about the hacking community that the International Women's Day website has been the subject of three denial of service (DoS) attacks today (8 March), the centenary of International Women's Day.  Continue Reading

• Email can be binding

  Can a contract be formed by email? Yes is the simple answer. In a 2010 case involving Prestige Homes v Neal, the Court of Appeal decided, amongst things, that an agreement made by email can become binding.  Continue Reading

• Comtek takes green network crusade to parliament

  Comms and networking repair services house Comtek, which you may recall we wrote about last November, has taken its campaign for a more environmentally sound approach to the nuts and bolts of the network to the Houses of Parliament.  Continue Reading

• Chips every night as Brits turn to PC dinners

  It looks as if research conducted by video on demand service SeeSaw may have helped coin a new term for the 21st century.  Continue Reading

• Secondhand love

  Can a user of purchased software resell their licence (and hand over the software) to a third party? That's a question that a German court has asked the European Court of Justice to consider.  Continue Reading

• Distie veteran French set to leave Azlan

  MicroScope understands that the hunt is on for a successor to Azlan boss Ian French, after sources claimed the distribution veteran is returning to his consultancy business, Siceo.  Continue Reading

• IBM Pulse, Las Vegas - it was literally Orbsome

  Pulse: It's not a new energy drink or a trade magazine for GPs. Well, it is a trade mag for doctors, but that's another story. Pulse is IBM's flagship service management event that asks how we can optimise the world's infrastructure and discover a ...  Continue Reading

• Deloitte's fantastic new crisis management application - a phone!

  Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has developed a new system to help businesses handle disasters and crises. It's called Bamboo. It's a Smartphone. So where there's a crisis, you whip out your 'phone' and get help. Good grief! Whatever will they...  Continue Reading

• Balloon stunt for new game leaves THQ red faced

  More from the inexhaustible supply of idiotic publicity stunts by IT companies: game developer THQ has landed in hot water San Francisco Bay water with a harebrained stunt to promote its latest masterwork.  Continue Reading

• Rising above the cloud computing war

  The cloud computing market boomed during 2010 with more and more organisations adopting cloud services.  Continue Reading

• 2Ergo puts you in touch with Sir Philip Green at the Retail Week show

  The one on the right is Sir Philip Green, CEO of Arcadia Group. The one on the left is his wife, who lives in Monaco and is exempt from paying taxes in the UK. You'd have thought he wouldn't begrudge paying taxes in the country that made him so rich...  Continue Reading

• Employees are protected

  The Transfer of Undertakings for the Protection of Employment - TUPE - protects employees and their employment when they transfer between businesses. When businesses are trading normally, employees are thought of as being protected.  Continue Reading

• File under 'Creepy': Japanese researchers develop 'fleshlike' mobile phone

  AFP reports that Japanese researchers have developed a mobile phone shaped like a person that has an outer coating that feels like human skin.  Continue Reading

• As PC sales decline the channel must embrace the alternative

  Those customers hoping that they can keep iPads and smart phones away from their network are going to find themselves in the minority.  Continue Reading

• Is Alcatel-Lucent up for sale?

  Could Huawei be lining up a bid for Franco-American network vendor Alcatel-Lucent? It could happen, if reports in the business press are to be believed.  Continue Reading

• Three new awards for networkers, so get your ACEs entries in!

  If you hang around here long enough, you might hear me pass some remark about how the network has become the true heart of the IT industry. It's a bit of a cliche, but I believe it to be true. But this year we plan on proving it.  Continue Reading

• Blimey Russia's got 4G! Is Britain in the slow lane while Yota's data network is Putin on the Bitz?

  Russian mobile broadband company Yota has clinched a deal with the country's main network operators that makes it the 4G network provider for the Russian telecoms market. It will roll-out an LTE network to cover 180 cities with a total population of...  Continue Reading

• World's least appetising headline event

  Anyone up for this?  Continue Reading

• Be anti-social and stay private

  Social media - Twitter, Facebook and the like - have a lot to answer for. Divorce, terrorist threats and dismissals are all well known consequences of poorly judged postings. Indeed, the biggest mistake that many users make is to assume that posts ...  Continue Reading

• Consumerisation of IT hands resellers an opportunity

  The latest research from IBM that has identified a trend among customers to earmark some spending for endpoint security as workforces become increasingly mobile, backs up numerous anecdotal reports from those selling products aimed at protecting ...  Continue Reading

• Apple to Microsoft: if you can trademark Windows, we can trademark App Store

  The latest development in the Microsoft v Apple court case over Apple's attempt to trademark the phrase "App Store" is a case of the biter bit.  Continue Reading

• Cisco tweaks partner accreditations in New Orleans

  Changes to Cisco's channel are once again afoot at the vendor's annual Partner Summit... During yesterday's keynote sessions, the vendor's global channel boss Edison Peres lifted the lid on a new cloud partner programme.  Continue Reading

• Ten things we hate about trade shows - even Infosec

  I missed CeBIT this year because I couldn't quite get my hair how I like it. So I cancelled the flight. And you know what, I don't think I missed anything. Why?  Continue Reading

• Don't bank on the Ombudsman

  Banks are often a law unto themselves. However, customers - both personal and commercial - can seek redress via the Financial Ombudsman Service.  Continue Reading

• Boffins shift IT dimensions with photonic quantum computing

  This is a representation of a circuit for quantum information processing that makes use of multiport MMI devices. These circuits will be more compact and robust to fabrication tolerances compared to the current 2x2 ports devices.  Continue Reading

• Money can't buy you love, but it can buy you a channel

  Xerox has a very simple strategy when it comes to the channel. If the company decides it needs a particular presence in a country it doesn't get bogged down in appointing distributors and setting up partner accreditations, it just goes out and buys ...  Continue Reading

• Reseller views. The case against high speed rail

  With plans for High Speed 2, the proposed fast rail link connecting London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, now undergoing a five-week public consultation, home and land owners along the proposed route are voicing their objections.  Continue Reading

• Coming to a cinema near you - high definition pictures from the SAS Group

  High definition movies are coming to your local Odeon, thanks to SAS Group In a world, where PC has gone mad. In a time, in the not too distant future. In a place, where popcorn costs a fortune. Only one thing can save us.  Continue Reading

• Empty property - empty relief?

  Property owners liability for business rates on empty properties changed in 2008; previously limited to 50 per cent of the rates bill, the cap was increased to 100 per cent of the rates bill. A huge problem and expense for anyone with unlet property.  Continue Reading

• Oscar gives three 'Likes' to The Social Network but prefers the king

  Not such a good night for The Social Network at the Oscars after all. Despite all the buzz around Facebook and social media, a film about an extremely posh English bloke with a speech impediment set in England in the 1930s took the major honours ...  Continue Reading

• Comms charity Télécoms Sans Frontières heads to Libya

  As a wave ofcivil unrest and revolution continues to sweep the Arab world, emergency telecommunications charity Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) is providing aid torefugees onLibya's border with Tunisiafollowing Muammar Gadaffi's ...  Continue Reading

• Vodafone forced off the air after break in

  The alarming dependence of modern Britain on technology has once again been laid bare after a break in at Vodafone's Basingstoke data centre, which is thought to have left over three million users without service today.  Continue Reading

• Postal service hit with new VAT regime

  Death and taxes. The two certainties in life according to US founding father Benjamin Franklin. Well not to disappoint, the Government has now added VAT to certain postal services as of 31 January.  Continue Reading

• Productivity's very human limitations

  Productivity is an unwieldy sounding word but it comes up a lot in IT speak, usually as a promise or an outcome. "Increased productivity" is the favourite - well, people are hardly likely to trumpet "decreased productivity" in their business.  Continue Reading

• How to recognise security vulnerabilities in your IT systems

  As IT systems continue to extend across multiple environments, IT security threats and vulnerabilities have likewise continued to evolve.  Continue Reading

• Five minute interview: Matthew Thomas, Kerio Technologies

  Matthew Thomas - UK Channel Manager for Kerio Technologies. What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? The best advice was from my father who told me to work hard, but always ensure there is time to relax and enjoy your free time...  Continue Reading

• Wholly and Exclusively

  The subject of business expenses and what can be claimed is an old chestnut that many businesses still make mistakes over. A recent case, Azam v HMRC, looks again at expenses incurred 'wholly and exclusively' for the purposes of the business.  Continue Reading

• Go on then, have mobile access underground! See if I care!

  Network Noise knows when it is beaten. Today we doff our blogging cap to the fine people at comparison site Broadband Expert, who have been asking what the man on the Clapham omnibus thinks of Huawei's plan to enable mobile phone use on the Tube.  Continue Reading

• Google asks kids for social security number details

  Interesting story in New York magazine regarding Google. Seems like the web giant may have been a bit over-zealous in asking schoolkids (aged from six to 12) to provide their name, city of birth, date of birth and the last four digits of their ...  Continue Reading

• ACAS offers a guiding light

  ACAS, the Government's arbitration service, and the TUC have produced a new guide entitled " Mediation: A guide for trade union representatives" that aims to raise awareness amongst trade union representatives of the benefits of mediation.  Continue Reading

• Public sector still to get the cloud

  While it's good to have some optimism coming from the latest survey of resellers carried out by CA Technologies there are some surprising findings in its latest Channel Index. One of them was not so much that cloud computing is taking off, but where...  Continue Reading

• How many succession plans do you need to succeed?

  Apple shareholders have been getting very exercised about what will happen when CEO Steve Jobs leaves the company. They want a succession plan. There are suggestions Apple already has one in place anyway, but personally I'm bemused by their concerns.  Continue Reading

• Did you even know Cisco did email?

  If your answer to the question posed in the headline is a resounding "no", then you needn't worry because they don't. As part of a shake-up of its collaboration business, Cisco is axing a hosted email service that very few people seem to have known ...  Continue Reading

• Bribery Act delayed ... again...

  The implementation of the Bribery Act - see Business Man 2 November - has been delayed from its proposed start date in April. The cause of the delay is the Ministry of Justice, which still has to publish final Guidance on 'adequate procedures'.  Continue Reading

• Yet another skills shortage, why can't we try something different?

  I'm starting to get heartily sick of stories about skills shortages, usually around the latest technological trend.  Continue Reading

• Azzurri gets Royal seal of approval

  Networking services provider Azzurri will be putting in a call to its stationer after being awarded a Royal Warrant by the Queen for provision of communications services.  Continue Reading

• New campaign asks techies to come out the wiring closet

  Techies lose a year of their lives, on average, trying to untangle their networks, according to a study by IT Footprint.  Continue Reading

• Changes afoot in the new Pensions Bill

  The Government has now published the Pensions Bill 2011 which includes, amongst things, provisions to implement automatic enrolment (along the lines of the recommendations of the recent DWP review).  Continue Reading

• Twitter turns off business users! Pope in Catholic shocker!

  UC Expo's new research showing that business users are turned off unified comms because there are too many social media options out there comes as little surprise to Network Noise.  Continue Reading

• Would you let your employer access your Facebook account?

  There were two interesting Facebook related stories over the weekend. The first involved a Spanish Dominican nun who was asked to leave the order, after 35 years, for supposedly spending too much time on Facebook.  Continue Reading

• Huawei's network 'gift' is a poisoned chalice

  So, China is giving us the 'generous' gift of irritating loudmouths jabbering away on their mobile phones on the tube. That's if comms firm Huawei gets its way.  Continue Reading

• Pregnancy and work

  The Department for Business Innovation and Skills has published a leaf let summarising the rights and mutual obligations of pregnant employees and their employers in relation to babies which are due on or after 3 April 2011.  Continue Reading

• Content is king? Not with this mumbling monarch.

  In the first of a regular series of guest columns, digital media guru Elle O'Elle of Zeitgeist 2.0 gives her lowdown on Colin Firth's stuttering performance in The King's Speech Is it me or is the King's Speech massively over-rated? The story limps ...  Continue Reading

• Libya: Internet was "probably switched off by The Great Satan" claims spokesman

  We thought the explanation for Egypt's Internet shutdown was creative. "A cleaner must have switched it off". It's back on again in Egypt now, according to Arbor Networks.  Continue Reading

• Time to talk to the tech bosses about growth not cuts

  The US president Barack Obama seems to have recognised the value and worth of the tech sector having completed two meetings with IT bosses in the last few weeks.  Continue Reading

• What's the future of mobile operators? asks Ken Denman at MWC post mortem

  With the clarity that hindsight, Openwave chief Ken Denman picks out the big talking points from this year's Mobile World Congress As visitors headed home from MWC.  Continue Reading

• Trend Micro shows a sense of humour at RSA 2011

  Nick Booth reporting from RSA 2011, San Francisco Having blagged a last minute flight to my favorite US town, San Francisco, I thought I was having a good RSA. Security events can be tedious. Security is a vocation that seems to attract chippy, anal...  Continue Reading

• Are Bahrain's ISPs masking a new net crackdown?

  Following the deposition of the Egyptian government in a protracted and at times bloody revolution, the Bahraini government may have got itself into hot water as well, with international concern growing as the news filters out.  Continue Reading

• Company Directors warned on risk mitigation strategy

  According to law firm O'Connors LLP, non-executive directors must check their employer companies have a personal risk mitigation strategy in place, especially as the risks facing directors had never been greater and will only intensify further once ...  Continue Reading

• Hells bells, wheels come off Dell Streak stunt

  I laughed out loud at the story about the Dell staffers arrested after a PR stunt went badly wrong.  Continue Reading

• Harness the power of young minds

  If you want to get some young brains to come up with an advertising campaign for your product then a good idea might well be to take a tip from JLT Mobile Computers.  Continue Reading

• Alec Baldwin flogs Cisco TelePresence

  The news that product placement is to be allowed on commercial TV in the UK reminded Network Noise of a recent episode of US sitcom 30 Rock, starring Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey.  Continue Reading

• Lower insurance premiums on the horizon?

  Good news! Motorists may see lower insurance premiums as seven insurance companies and two IT software and service providers have provisionally agreed to limit the data that they exchange between them after the Office of Fair Trading raised ...  Continue Reading

• US companies want to bring their money home

  An interesting story which originally appeared in Forbes, has revealed that a consortium of companies - Cisco, Oracle, Apple and Pfizer among them - are lobbying the US government for a tax holiday to repatriate as much as $1 trillion banked in ...  Continue Reading

• Dell buying AMD would be the irony to end all ironies

  Dell was quizzed about its acquisition strategy on a conference call with analysts last night but nobody mentioned the white elephant in the room; the feverish industry talk that it is looking to buy AMD.  Continue Reading

• Google chief: Nokia should've gone with us

  As if yesterday's damning analysis by analyst Will Gibbs at IHS iSuppli was not clear enough on the subject, executive chairman and former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has now stuck his oar into the furore surrounding Nokia and Microsoft's decision ...  Continue Reading

• ShoreTel's Don Girskis reflects on time at the top

  Last week, Network Noise sat down for coffee and sandwiches with Don Girskis, worldwide sales vice president and erstwhile interim CEO at ShoreTel.  Continue Reading

• Workplace dispute reforms proposed

  Plans to improve the way in which workplace disputes are resolved have been published by the Government.  Continue Reading

• Denman's Diary: Mobile World Congress 2011 is all about collaboration

  It may have rained for most of the first day, but so far, Mobile World Congress has been anything but a wash out, writes Open wave chief executive Ken Denman Official visitor numbers have yet to be announced, but the place seemed to be packed.  Continue Reading