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NEWS


Dealers get data centre experience


WESTCON Group’s resellers can now get to grips with the techni- calities and infrastructures that lie behind big market opportunities in data centres. Hotbeds of excellence, called LEAP (Learn, Experience, Arch- itect and Plan) Centres, have been designed to help resellers capital- ise on data centre opportunities linked to next generation technolo- gies, including the Cisco Unified Computing System.


The first LEAP Centre, a


Brussels-based facility that opened last month, is the precursor of simi- lar operations to be launched by Westcon Group. This month sees a LEAP Centre open its doors in Denver, USA, with others to follow in Australia and Singapore. Dean Douglas, President and


CEO, Westcon Group, com- mented: “Our global LEAP Centre initiative is a strategic and signifi- cant investment on our part, better enabling partners to capture data centre related opportunities. “The training facilities go well


beyond demonstrations, offering the opportunity to experience and work with truly integrated data centre infrastructures.”


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Warning over security leaks


TELECOMS resellers should be doing more to help their customers understand the risks of sensitive security leaks and high fines under data protection rules.


Those that do keep customers up to speed stand to win more busi- ness as European directives govern- ing information privacy come into law over the next two years, says Jonathan Armstrong, a partner at the law firm Duane Morris who specialises in data protection. He commented: “Many busi-


nesses are concentrating on secu- rity. They know that the capacity of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to levy fines has increased, the board are interested and there’s a whole host of regula- tion to come. Compliance projects are easier to fund at this time than upgrade projects.” Armstrong says that the ICO is encouraging more businesses to be open about security breaches and plans to use customer databases as a result of BT’s trial of the packet monitoring and targeted advertis- ing platform, Phorm. Last month, the European


Union officially opened a court case against the UK government for failing to adequately protect consumers from an invasion of privacy by Phorm.


T-Mobile’s network in Orange combination


MOBILE customers of Everything Everywhere, the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile, can now access its two mobile networks. Under a new scheme launched last month Orange customers are able to make calls and send texts on the T-Mobile network while T- Mobile customers are able to do the same using the Orange network. According to Everything Every-


where, this means that 27 million UK customers, the combined cus- tomer base of both brands, can use their mobiles in more places than was previously possible. Customers who want to sign up for access to both networks


will benefit free of charge, with no changes to their existing tariff or call or text charges. A £4m joint Orange and T-


Mobile advertising campaign launched last month aims to raise awareness of the new deal. Tom Alexander, CEO of


Everything Everywhere, stated: “This is the culmination of a com- plex technical project, but the result is simple, our customers now get two networks for the price of one. “This is the first step in our vision of giving our customers instant access to whatever they want, wherever they are – instant access to everything, everywhere.”


Jonathan Armstrong


“Many businesses are concentrating on security”


Two new European directives will come into force over the next 18 months which will require more stringent reporting and threaten heavier fines for businesses that breach regulations. At the same time, trends in social media and smart devices are blending personal and corpo- rate address books in a way that could leave private information not gained through an opt-in policy exposed in a security breach. “The searchlight is on telecoms


companies,” said Armstrong. “The law is going to get tougher.”


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VoIP market in growth phase


THE global business VoIP services market is poised for significant growth according to the latest fore- casts by ABI Research.


Analysts note that in 2009 the


market displayed growth trends counter cyclical to the wider econ- omy, registering high growth in terms of volume and value. ABI’s definition if the VoIP ser-


vices market includes VoIP inte- grated access, SIP trunking, hosted IP-PBX/IP Centrex and managed IP-PBX services. According to analysis, this market is set to double over the next five years to exceed $20bn by 2015. Senior analyst, Subha Rama, commented: “The trend of compa- nies outsourcing their communica- tions infrastructure has taken off in earnest as enterprise decision mak- ers look for cost savings without


having to compromise on features and functionality. “Among VoIP access technolo-


gies, SIP trunking has seen consid- erable growth in terms of installed base and revenues during the last 12-18 months.” Much of the market growth is attributed to companies replacing their legacy phone systems with hosted VoIP technologies. Traditionally, hosted VoIP ser-


vices were targeted at SMBs, espe- cially companies with between 20- 50 employees, but sweet spots are emerging among larger enterprises. Rama added: “Overall, the


growth momentum seen in 2009 was sustained in the first half of 2010 as companies continued to shy away from capital investments, opting instead for the OPEX model of hosted VoIP services.”


TIMICO has acquired mobile applications specialist Handheld PCs. The acquisition extends Timico’s cloud-based hosting capability into the mobile space. Tim Radford, Chairman of Timico Group, said: “The addition of Handheld PCs increases our capability to address the growing demand for mobile-based applications, the management of the smart phone devices and the integration of the mobile Internet bearer into a corporate IP data network. Add this to our capability to provide mobile connectivity and a range of customer focused billing services, and we are well positioned to help large communities of customers who see the management of mobile data users as a growing issue.”


Scansource introduces Avaya’s data portfolio


SCANSOURCE Communica- tions Europe has added the Avaya Data product range to its portfolio for UK resellers, enabling the dis- tributor and its partners to address the wider enterprise market. Xavier Cartiaux, President of


ScanSource Europe, said: “Adding Avaya Data to our portfolio means that our voice resellers can increase their own product offering. For those already selling data solutions, they can now source them from one place. We’ve been able to sim- plify and diversify the distribution channel options at the same time.” Barry Tuffs, Sales Leader, Avaya, added: “We have a good history


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VC-NET signs with TDAzlan


VC-NET has signed an agreement with Cisco distributor TDAzlan. Executive Chairman of VC-


NET, Chris Wade, said: “The video collaboration market is set for change and expansion. Following the integration of Tandberg into Cisco we can help our clients to take advantage of these changes and opportunities.” Ian French, Strategic Develop-


Xavier Cartiaux


with ScanSource in the US and Europe. Adding Avaya Data to its offering strengthens our position in the channel and ensures greater visibility of our products.”


, s NGN


ment Director at TDAzlan, added: “Existing Cisco partners who embrace the opportunities pre- sented by Cisco’s acquisition of Tandberg have an opportunity to widen their portfolio, increase their revenue, and expand their profit- able services based income.”


No sending VoIP traffic over the internet Direct connection to O-bit


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