Today, cyber security professionals are fighting on multiple fronts. This has in turn engendered a marketplace full of hundreds of point products, each aimed at fulfilling different security objectives.

Topics: SIEM, IT Infrastructure, Cybersecurity Threats

 

Danny Yeowell, Security and Networking Business Unit Manager at Avnet

 

Cloud. Security. Two words that can polarise debate as some channel leaders see opportunity while others see issues and for every cloud sceptic there is a cloud convert.  All too often the debate is about how secure is “cloud” whereas the focus should really be on understanding what it has to offer and how it can support an organisation’s business priorities.

Topics: Security, Cloud Services, Cloud Computing, IT Infrastructure

 

Michael Fischermanns, vice president cloud solutions at Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA

 

Today we are seeing cloud computing spreading across the IT landscape, offering businesses the benefits of scalability, speed and accessibility. IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker¹  showed that cloud IT infrastructure spending climbed to nearly 30% of overall IT infrastructure spending in 1Q15, up from 26.4% a year before.

Topics: Cloud, Cloud Computing, Partners, Resellers, IT Infrastructure

Simon Stevens, cloud & managed services business development manager

We are seeing the technology industry shifting gear when it comes to next-generation technologies. It’s an exciting time for the IT industry; we are experiencing a major technological evolution.

I’m all in favour of this change as my time and focus is spent helping Avnet’s partners evolve and grow their businesses. More than most, I see first-hand how change can be difficult at the best of times. It requires great courage for a business to change the formula that has made it successful. But in truth, when it comes to IT, the formula that made us successful in the past is not the same formula for our future success. Channel partners need to branch out and try new things with new technologies. They might need different skills, a different message or even different customers. But of course, despite what you might read, change doesn’t happen overnight.

Topics: Cloud Services, Cloud Computing, Enterprise IoT, Internet of Things (IoT), IT Channel, IT Infrastructure

Technical Lead, Cloud And DevOps Practice at Avnet Services

Middleware has been a foundation of modern web-based applications for a long time now. Middleware has evolved substantially over the years and has provided a platform for developers to develop rich distributed applications. In today’s world the richest of applications can all be easily accessed via the web and can scale to accept millions of connections, thanks in large part to middleware.  There are a variety of middleware types from application servers to message oriented middleware, all working together to provide a platform upon which developers can develop and scale applications.

Topics: Cloud Computing, DevOps, Storage, IT Infrastructure, IT Software

Karen Griffith, Practice Lead, Cloud Solutions EMEA has over 15 years’ experience in the IT industry. She and her highly skilled technical team work with customers within the full lifecycle of Cloud Services, from the initial asset discovery, pre-sales including POT’s and POC’s, to the Cloud Strategy and Architecture Services and on to the cloud migration, transformation and automation services

We all want to say yes to our customers and everyone I meet prides themselves in providing their customers with a great service. But for many businesses working in the managed services industry, finding the balance between offering your customers the support they need across numerous different technologies verses being able to maintain a healthy profit is a constant and intense balancing act.

Topics: Managed Services, Business Needs, IT Distributor Services, IT Infrastructure

At the beginning of this year, we laid out our top predictions for technology trends in the channel for 2016. As we reach the half way point of the calendar year, it’s time to recap and see how things are shaping up so far:

Marcus Adae, Vice President Strategic Suppliers,
Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA

#1: Mobility for channel enablement

Mobility is moving more towards app-driven enablement, this much we know to be true. Mobile apps are becoming the norm for any kind of customer interaction, thanks to more personalised engagement through analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) data. However, what we’re seeing so far is that enterprise infrastructure is an even more important driver for the channel and partners in the mobility space.

Topics: Security, IoT, Mobility, Big Data, Analytics, Channel, Cloud Computing, Partners, Technology, Trends, 3rd Platform, BYoD, Converged Infrastructure, Resellers, Internet of Things (IoT), IT Infrastructure

Tristan Gwinnell, Cloud Solutions EMEA, Avnet, takes a look at what cloud really means

 

The term cloud means different things to different people. For consumers the cloud might be where they store their music and photographs. For others it might be Google Apps or Office365. If you’re a business user it could be a cloud-hosted application. If you run a datacentre it could be a way of optimising hardware. The list goes on.

All of these are types of cloud – essentially a means of providing computer hardware and software via the internet. In ‘technology years’ the cloud has been around for a long time. Salesforce launched in the 1990s with a mission to end software. Recently the technology has come in to its own and there has been a rapid increase in the types and number of cloud services and suppliers.

Topics: Cloud, Cloud Computing, Data Center Solutions, SaaS, AWS, Cloud Environment, IT Infrastructure, IT Software

Michele Burgess is Avnet Services Alliance Manager, enabling partners to capitalise on the increasing demand for IT services by augmenting in-house teams with experts in Cloud, Digital and IOT solutions. 

Being a provider of IT solutions is sometimes not easy. I often feel for our partners. Over a coffee last month, one partner was explaining that after 12 months of hard work, they finally found themselves in front of their client to discuss migrating to the cloud.

It had taken them months of hard work to convince their customer that a cloud-based application was the right solution. They’d successfully completed a number of sales pitches and addressed a succession of stakeholders. On this journey they had sat in countless meetings, clocked up thousands of miles, drank too much coffee, sat up late at night producing slide decks and quoted numerous experts on why cloud is the best solution.

Topics: Cloud, Cloud Services, Cloud Computing, Business Needs, IT Infrastructure, IT Software

Karen Griffith, Practice Lead, Cloud Solutions EMEA has over 15 years’ experience in the IT industry. She and her highly skilled technical team work with customers within the full lifecycle of Cloud Services, from the initial asset discovery, pre-sales including POT’s and POC’s, to the Cloud Strategy and Architecture Services and on to the cloud migration, transformation and automation services

Migrating to the Cloud is not a new concept and yet is by no means a declining one. Cloud migration means different things for different groups, whether business users or the IT technical team. On the surface, the drivers for migration appear the same, however the value cloud brings to various parts of the organisation can be very distinct.

Topics: IaaS, Cloud, Cloud Services, Cloud Computing, Business Needs, IT Infrastructure