Opinion

Opinion

• The diversity shame in the industry

  The recent views from a former Google employee have highlighted the work that still needs to be done around diversity with Billy MacInnes scratching his head over why the problem is still such a big one in IT  Continue Reading

• Whoa…we’re halfway there, and opportunities await if you’re a cloud player

  The future is the cloud and Jennifer Warawa, EVP of Partners, Accountants, and Alliances at Sage, has noted that the channel is already on the road to the future  Continue Reading

• Bridging the channel’s future-proofing skills gap

  Dan Milo, head of SME strategy and IT consultant, Targus, discusses why training shouldn’t just help channel partners sell, but give them a vision of the future  Continue Reading

• The channel are critical change agents for digitally transformation

  The channel’s role goes beyond providing tech and systems integration services. It has a responsibility to consult on ways businesses can save money via improved efficiency and collaboration, argues Simon Skellon, vice president, Mitel, UK  Continue Reading

• The Microsoft model seems to be working

  Recent results from major vendors have given an insight into the challenges for vendors that deliver both hardware and software with Billy MacInnes noting Microsoft seems ahead of rivals  Continue Reading

• UKFast takes the right steps to help the next generation

  The move by UKFast to help its graduates pay off some of their student loans has got the thumbs up from Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Flash storage could end in tiers

  Flash storage was meant to mean all data was equal and could be accessed quickly but as Nick Booth finds out it hasn't quite happened like that  Continue Reading

• Let's just wait and see

  We all have a tendency to take a 'wait and see' attitude to life but as Billy MacInnes discovers that can be a dangerous approach when it comes to SMEs and cyber security  Continue Reading

• In praise of the power of partnerships

  Some of the most famous partnerships have changed the world, just look at Lennon and McCartney, and the same can be true in the tech world Billy MacInnes discovers  Continue Reading

• Twilio wants to end the automated snobbery of communcations channels

  CRM can be a positive tool but it can also become a problem but Nick Booth has been talking to someone who might have an answer  Continue Reading

• Why wouldn't you support apprenticeships?

  The decision to reduce funding for firms providing apprenticeships has got Billy MacInnes scratching his head over the strategy  Continue Reading

• Fake news joins the list of other dubious services for sale

  Trend Micro is all too familiar with charting the growth in malicious services for sale and it has added fake news to that list  Continue Reading

• Let's hope uncertain times leads to more IT spending

  The views of Claranet that the spending on digital transformation has increased as the economic and political landscape has become more uncertain has intrigued Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Faith in IT can be lost at the flick of a switch

  The recent BA IT failure showed just how the expectations that IT will always work can quickly evaporate and got Billy MacInnes wondering on the cause of the problems  Continue Reading

• Will it be a Brexit through the gift shop for your EU competitors?

  Some fanatics are passionate about failure for the UK IT industry. Nick Booth wonders if they will be disappointed.  Continue Reading

• Going direct will not provide the complete solution

  Buying directly from the vendor might sound like an attractive idea but it is unlikely to provide the end result customers are looking for, argues Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• The curse of IT longevity

  Plenty of fingers were pointed at the use of Windows XP as one of the main factors in the spread of WannaCry but Billy MacInnes wonders if that is totally fair  Continue Reading

• Don't sweat the asset just trade it in

  Moves by Tech Data to make it easier for resellers to trade in old equipment could be a smart move thinks Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Unpicking the claims behind the attention grabbing headline

  The claim that small firms without a web site were losing substantial amounts of money attracted the attentions of Billy MacInnes who wanted to work out just where the numbers had come from  Continue Reading

• Getting the degree was the easy bit

  Life for graduates is increasingly difficult and Billy MacInnes discovers that some are starting to wonder if it's not better to just get involved with the IT industry at the earliest opportunity  Continue Reading

• A surprising number of SMEs blamed a lack of finance for stalling growth

  Revelations that a lack of finance is holding back some SMEs surprised Billy MacInnes in terms of the volume of firms expressing problems  Continue Reading

• Should the return of the Nokia 3310 be welcomed?

  Nokia users really have been able to turn back time with the reissue of the 3310 but Billy MacInnes wonders if the world has not moved on too much since it was last around  Continue Reading

• Is small-scale mobile M2M a viable business model for resellers?

  Jack Wetson, Product Developer at Bamboo Technology Group, addresses the common misconceptions around the commercial viability of cellular M2M in the channel  Continue Reading

• Dell EMC turns it up to 11

  Spinal Tap liked to push the speakers as far as they would go and Dell EMC looks like it might be trying to do the same, according to Billy MacInnes, with its partner programme  Continue Reading

• Why IT teams need to lock down IoT endpoints

  John Ferron, chairman of Ivanti - Powered by HEAT Software, shares his thoughts about the need to increase the defences against the IoT threat  Continue Reading

• Should we still be taking the tablets?

  With tablets showing signs of declining demand Billy MacInnes wonders just what the future holds for the hardware  Continue Reading

• In the age of alternate reality we need some actual reality

  Events over the other side of the pond have got Billy MacInnes thinking about just where virtual reality goes next  Continue Reading

• How many channel partners are too many?

  It is an almost unanswerable question but Billy MacInnes wonders just how many channel partners are too many  Continue Reading

• Patents = innovation? Maybe not

  Just because a company files lots of patents does not necessarily mean that innovation is alive and well argues Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

  Those classic lines might be coming true in a way that the author never originally intended notes Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• The industrial internet: Why data analysis is a critical success factor

  In the latest part of his series about the potential of the industrial internet Ian van Reenen, vice president of engineering, endpoint products at Autotask, shares some more advice  Continue Reading

• Why 2018 will be a watershed for encryption market

  Greater awareness of data protection issues and the arrival of the EU’s GDPR are opening up new opportunities for the channel, says Tony Pepper  Continue Reading

• What IT leaders should be putting on their Christmas wish list

  Gary Bell, executive director - outsourcing, Civica shares his advice about just what technologies customers should be looking to invest in to make sure they start of 2017 with a bang  Continue Reading

• If only security experts could persuade us to change passwords

  The inability for most users to grasp the importance of the password is something that Nick Booth thinks needs to be better addressed  Continue Reading

• The true value of mobile device management

  Ian van Reenen, vice president of engineering, endpoint products at Autotask, shares some thoughts about the challenges facing those trying to manage mobile devices  Continue Reading

• What happened to the HP machine?

  Anyone remember the HP announcement about 'the machine'? Billy MacInnes does and he wonders just what has happened to the grand project  Continue Reading

• Demystifying the myths of the channel and the cloud

  Niko Mykkanen, head of partner channel strategy, Amazon Web Services EMEA, shares some thoughts about the way the channel can approach the cloud  Continue Reading

• Business has to stand for something

  With so much happening in the political world at the moment it is hard for business leaders to keep silent on their views, notes Billy Macinnes  Continue Reading

• Industrial Internet of Things: Redefining MSP service offerings

  Ian van Reenen, vice president of engineering, endpoint products at Autotask, looks at the opportunities IoT in the commercial sector offers MSPs  Continue Reading

• Channel people still play a vital role

  Hearing that channel firms are growing is welcome news for Billy MacInnes and he wonders just what is driving that success  Continue Reading

• Five tips for managing currency risk ahead of the US election

  With the US election only three weeks away, Alex Edwards, head of the corporate desk at UKForex, gives his five top tips for managing currency risk, whatever the outcome  Continue Reading

• Who can hold out against price rises?

  Moves announced by Microsoft to increase prices are perhaps inevitable concludes Billy MacInnes as he casts his eye over the post Brexit landscape  Continue Reading

• Breaking down the barriers to Smart Tech in the home

  Rod Slater, head of Smart Tech & IoT at Exertis, has some advice about how the channel can take advantage of the wave of smart technology targeted at the home  Continue Reading

• Let's have a meeting in the echo chamber

  There is a real danger, according to some research that has come to the attention of Billy MacInnes, that meetings are failing in their purpose  Continue Reading

• Software defined storage is a false economy says Nexsan boss

  Nick Booth has been catching up with Nexsan to hear why some of the promises of an easy life might not be quite so accurate  Continue Reading

• Security defences are holding

  There is plenty of doom and gloom about just how prepared customers are on the security front but Billy MacInnes has found some research that challenges that perception  Continue Reading

• People must think the cloud computing industry is a bunch of Yahoos

  Nick Booth has some thoughts on the revelations that Yahoo suffered a major security breach that went unreported for quite some time  Continue Reading

• The future of mobile data post-Brexit

  Lorrin White, managing director of Bamboo Technology Group, wonders if price rises will be the silver lining for UK telcos hungry to invest in their networks?  Continue Reading

• Winning gold in the technology race

  It has been a glorious summer for Olympians and Gary Bell, executive director - outsourcing at Civica draws some inspiration for IT users  Continue Reading

• SMEs taking ownership of big IT contracts

  IT Legal expert Louise Handley of Leeds-based law firm 3volution says IT SME contractors shouldn’t be afraid to scrutinise the small print when chasing deals with big clients  Continue Reading

• Access, not ownership: financing software in the channel

  Ownership does not have to be the be all and end all according to Tristan Watkins, CEO, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK  Continue Reading

• The Brexit phoney war

  Ten weeks after Brexit and the world has not yet ended. Billy MacInnes casts his eye over the figures proclaiming it is all slightly better business as usual  Continue Reading

• Stay flexible – how to benefit from the rise of the softphone

  Softphones are popular, when the channel can get customers to adopt them, and Paul Clarke, channel manager, 3CX, has some advice on how to improve the odds of that happening  Continue Reading

• How to build a winning sales culture

  Mark Banfield, Autotask's senior VP International, provides five proven strategies that will help you strengthen sales culture in your organisation  Continue Reading

• Going for gold takes serious effort

  Gold medal winners put in years of preparation and the same is true of those leading the way in the channel  Continue Reading

• Living with skill shortages

  The world is suffering from IT skill shortages but that might just be something we all have to get used to concludes Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Cloud: Everyone else is doing it, why can’t we?

  Chris Roberts, director of Channel at Pulsant, looks at why some have been more successful than others in changing sales culture, remuneration approaches and business models when it comes to selling cloud  Continue Reading

• Hybrid-Cloud VDI profitability in seven steps

  Atchison Frazer from Xangati provides a roadmap for the channel to deliver a successful Virtual Desktop Infrastructure  Continue Reading

• 8 tips for creating a successful sales methodology for IT services

  Mark Banfield, senior vice president, International, Autotask, shares some advice about how to create a successful sales methodology  Continue Reading

• Why TWI’s SurFlow could really change the landscape

  Nick Booth has been talking to TWI and is intrigued by a networking technology that can run faster, more securely and make every sort of physical transport cheaper and safer  Continue Reading

• Distribution deserves some credit for its positive moves

  With Tech Data and Ingram Micro both increasing credit for SME focused partners Billy Macinnes applauds them for their positive steps  Continue Reading

• No longer business as usual

  There might be some happy to pretend that after Brexit it is business as usual but it is far from that according to Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Enabling a smarter state: delivering services based around people, not policy

  David Cameron might be on his way out but his vision of a smarter state is one the channel can still help deliver says Chris Ginnelly, managing director, Civica Digital Solutions  Continue Reading

• The expensive LinkedIn dream

  Microsoft might have big dreams of what life will be like after it completes the takeover of LinkedIn and Billy MacInnes wonders what they are  Continue Reading

• The Hubspot story can be an inspiration to us all

  Could you write a book about the IT industry as good as Disrupted? In your dreams, Steven King!  Continue Reading

• The negatives of legacy IT

  In the age of digital transformation Billy MacInnes muses over the increasingly negative associations that legacy IT suffers from  Continue Reading

• Channel matchmaker: Consider Neo

  In his ongoing mission to identify vendors that could benefit from working with the channel, Nick Booth has another firm to bring under the spotlight  Continue Reading

• Channel evolution is critical to capitalising on the UC market

  Russell Lux, CEO of TelcoSwitch, argues that the channel needs to adapt if it is to retain a share of the united comms market  Continue Reading

• Does the UK slide down the cloud rankings matter?

  In light of the recent BSA findings that the UK has dropped down the rankings of a good place to use the cloud Billy MacInnes wonders if that is a terrible thing  Continue Reading

• Brocade reports back on its channel survey

  Vendor reveals results of its channel survey and stresses it is keen to hear from its partners  Continue Reading

• Channel matchmaker on MariaDB

  It’s big, it’s robust and it’s all over the place! Meet MariaDB  Continue Reading

• Computer says no

  Billy MacInnes muses non the flipside to everything being connected and wonders what happens when things get turned off  Continue Reading

• Channel matchmaker: Look over the otherside of the Channel

  In his regular series highlighting potential partnership opportunities for resellers Nick Booth highlights some French options  Continue Reading

• Infrastructure as a utility – The next stage in cloud evolution

  Philippe Fosse, VP EMEA channels at EMC, shares his thoughts on the channel, innovation and the cloud  Continue Reading

• Scottish tech start ups looking for channel support

  In his latest update of firms that are looking for channel supporters Nick Booth finds a couple of contenders North of the border  Continue Reading

• Giving data the respect it deserves

  Plenty of firms have been hit by cyber crime but do they take looking after their data seriously enough wonders Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• You want systems for Retail? Well here is the detail

  Nick Booth is back with another piece revealing partnering opportunities for resellers tempted by some foreign entrants to the UK  Continue Reading

• The money makers need to talk more about data and security

  There could come a time when data and security strategies start to matter as much to investors as the latest update on the P&L finds Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Speed and digital transformation might not be the best mix

  Few would argue against the need for more customers to embrace digital transformation but Billy MacInnes warns against rushing that process  Continue Reading

• Channel matchmaker: Two to take a look at

  The firms looking for channel partners continue to keep coming with Nick Booth highlighting a couple of potential opportunities  Continue Reading

• Is it Information Technology or Income Tax?

  IT used to stand for one thing when it was associated with tech firms. But as Billy MacInnes argues it now has a different meaning for many  Continue Reading

• Can you explain bare metal Big Switch Networks to the British public?

  There are opportunities out there as Nick Booth finds for those in the channel that have a grasp on their technology  Continue Reading

• So that's what Android is doing for Google

  Billy MacInnes pores over recent details of the contribution that the Android OS is making to Google  Continue Reading

• Is the golden age of disruptive technology coming to an end?

  Nick Booth casts an eye over some of the claims that are made by marketing types and wonders if things will change with technology supporting consensual data collection  Continue Reading

• The security hole in health tracking plans

  Most people will resolve to get fitter this year but they could be using technology that exposes them to security risks as Billy MacInnes finds out  Continue Reading

• 2016: a year of stark choices

  Working out just which way the winds will blow in the public sector this year is a topic that Paul Bradbury, group business development director at Civica mulls over  Continue Reading

• Five technology trends that will define 2016

  Just what should resellers look out for in the year ahead? Brian Buggy, co-founder and vp products at Zynstra, has some suggestions  Continue Reading

• Data, data everywhere but not the chance to think

  The data is stacking up but Billy MacInnes is worried that some firms are facing a mounting challenge to use it to shape the destiny of the business  Continue Reading

• Trust is so crucial to the CIO relationship

  A lot of CIOs still use gut instinct but also rely on the advice of their channel partner, which Billy MacInnes believes is good news  Continue Reading

• Office 365 – a sheep in wolf’s clothing

  The channel might have feared Office 365 but it could be an opportunity claims Aidan Simister, regional director at Lepide Software  Continue Reading

• Government fumbles around, unable to find the spot on the G-Cloud

  Nick Booth canvasses some opinion about just what is happening with G-Cloud  Continue Reading

• Why the PC?

  Apple's CEO might have mused on the reasons for a PC in the age of the iPad Pro and he has got Billy MacInnes thinking about the humble desktop and its role  Continue Reading

• Nadella the agent for change

  The Microsoft CEO is already changing the company and Nick Booth thinks even more is on the way  Continue Reading

• How to avoid a streaming own goal

  More events are being streamed online from sporting contests to Microsoft's WPC keynotes. Ed Martin from Kemp Technologies explores how to avoid embarrassing and costly ‘black outs’  Continue Reading

• Reducing staff turnover in IT and telecommunications

  Kim Lewin, VP sales and operations EMEA, WorkForce Software, provides some advice for keeping staff happy  Continue Reading

• Acer still has a way to go

  Acer's CEO has talked of the firm getting back to the top of the PC market but as Billy MacInnes goes through the latest results it is clear work still needs to be done  Continue Reading

• IT is not always to blame for a failed tech project

  IT projects failing to be delivered is a problem we have all grown used to but as Billy MacInnes discovers the reasons things go wrong are not always obvious  Continue Reading

• One SIEM does not fit all

  Despite all the fanfare and hullabaloo SIEM isn’t always the right answer for the channel, says Aidan Simister, regional director at Lepide Software  Continue Reading

• Does spending $67bn guarantee success?

  Dell might have made history with its offer for EMC but as Billy MacInnes ponders over the deal it is far from clear that means it will be a success  Continue Reading

• Dell resellers get to say 'I told you so'

  Those resellers that embraced Dell when it returned to the channel almost eight years ago have even more reasons to think they made a wise decision  Continue Reading