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BULLETIN
SMEs slow to embrace
cloud computing
Close Brothers’ quarterly survey of UK SME
owners and senior management from a range
of sectors, has revealed that the majority of
the UK’s small and medium sized businesses
have no plans to formalise a cloud computing
strategy.
51% of the businesses polled answered ‘no’
when asked if their organisation was formalising
a cloud computing strategy, 29% responded
positively and the remaining 19% were ‘unsure’.
When asked to rate the importance of having
a formal cloud computing strategy, only 9% of
businesses said it was ‘very important’, 24%
agreed it was ‘important’ and 14% of SMEs were
of the opinion that it was not essential at all.
Ian McVicar, CEO, Close Brothers Technology
Services said: “The results of the survey are quite
sobering and make it clear that there is some way
to go before business owners fully appreciate the
importance of the cloud.”
Close Brothers is working with IDC on a cloud
computing vendor spotlight. The paper presents
an overview of IT cloud services, giving end-
user organisations guidance and advice on the
advantages and challenges involved in the journey
to the cloud.
eSignLive recognised as
a market leader
eSignLive has been recognised as a market
leader across e-signature providers in
Forrester Research’s October 2016 report:
Vendor Landscape: E-Signature, Q4 2016
.
The report states: “Regulated industries
and demanding B2C environments are
eSignLive’s sweet spots. Its strongest
verticals are financial services and
government – it’s the only provider with
FedRAMP certification.”
eSignLive was named alongside DocuSign and
Adobe as the clear market leaders in the report.
Vantage Online migration exceeds expectation
StorPool updates to boost customer innovation
Demand from customers to move onto the
new cloud-based Vantage Online system
from the company’s legacy Service Accent
product, has resulted in a migration
pipeline that is already full well into the
New Year.
Early adopter, Ian Collins, Operations Director
at Unidoc Solutions said: “We’ve used the
Service Accent product for many years and it has
served us very well, but the new Vantage Online
software is a massive step forward. We have
improved internal efficiency and saved ourselves
both time and money in the process.”
Michael Savage, Director at Exsel Group
added: “Providing managed services to support
print and technology usage is highly dependent
upon utilising the best back office solutions. We
need to be on top of engineer hours, machine
usage and of course billing; the new Vantage
Online has simplified these critical elements and
so much more in our business.”
Distributed storage software specialist
StorPool Storage has announced the 13th
major update to its software-defined storage
solution.
The updated software offers a native back-up
and disaster recovery feature, eliminating the need
for a separate data protection solution, simplifying
storage infrastructure and reducing costs. In
addition, the software, which was originally
designed for Linux-based platforms, now includes
support for a wide range of environments, including
VMware hypervisors and Microsoft Windows.
This update comes on the back of StorPool’s
partnership with UK-based Vesper Technologies
which enables it to further develop its European
channel and will allow the reseller to bring the
company’s software-defined storage solutions to its
customer base in the UK.
Microsoft price hikes imminent
Effective from 1 January 2017, Microsoft
will introduce a new pricing structure for its
cloud and on-premises software in the UK
to reflect changes to the value of sterling
following the Brexit vote. Microsoft Office
365 and Azure licence fees will increase by
22%, while prices for Microsoft’s on-premises
enterprise software will increase by 13%.
With prices hikes imminent, Annodata says
that the channel must sharpen its understanding
and expertise of Office 365 to help their customers
achieve the best results from the platform.
Technical Director Andrew Smith said: “Microsoft’s
price rises weren’t entirely unexpected, but
obviously that doesn’t make them any more
palatable for end-users or for the channel.”
He added: “The price increase will only
apply to new contracts signed next year, so in
the immediate short term it would make sense
for end-users planning to migrate to Office 365
to fast-track their plans. But longer term, what
matters is that businesses can extract as much
value as possible from their software and the
channel has an important role in helping them do
that.”
A new OnePoll study commissioned
by Agilitas has found that hardware
is expected to make up a significant
proportion of IT sales in 2020.
According to the research, two-thirds
of channel leaders are confident that hardware
will continue to make up an important part of
their revenue streams in 2020. The greatest
sales growth is expected to come from artificial
intelligence, IoT, DevOps and 3D printing.
Disruption is also a major theme in the report,
with much of the research examining technology
support contracts and how these are managed
and operated. It revealed that resellers expect
to be selling 35% more multi-vendor solutions,
with just 20% believing single solution driven
operations will be a business priority by 2020.
Andrew Smith,
Technical Director,
Annodata
Research confirms continued
demand for hardware
