UNIFIED COMMS FORTNIGHTLY REPORT 40 News


42 News Panasonic fits jets with WiFi


Global IT spend to hit £2.3trn


UK pays over £5m to keep support for XP


By Pádraig McGarrigle


• Microsoft extends software back-up until April 2015 understandably


The UK government has paid Microsoft £5.5 million to extend security


Microsoft XP for a further 12 months.


seven years ago it would stop providing security


it is alone


for the OS as of April 8, 2014. However,


more than 85 per cent of NHS computers


Microsoft announced software estimated are still


running it, as well as many other civil service computers, forcing it to axe its plans.


Agreements A


Microsoft spokesperson confirmed it


would be


providing support for Windows XP, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003 until April 8 next year but stressed that “agreements such as these do not remove the need to move off Windows


Microsoft: Deserting XP


XP as soon as possible”. The £5.5 million payment was made through the Crown Commercial Service – the Cabinet Office’s new procurement body – and the agreement covers all of the UK public sector. It claims that purchasing patch support centrally meant the taxpayer “saved” £20 million


and support of it was this


aspect it was keen to focus on. “By combining demand on behalf of central government departments and the wider public sector,


Crown


Commercial Service has demonstrated the benefits of government working as a single customer to achieve best value for the taxpayer, whilst continuing


to build good


working relationships with our technology


suppliers,”


said Crown representative for software Rob Wilmot.


Migrated Additionally,


formed body


the recently- has also


announced a tender process for a Crown Hosting Service for the “provision, installation, maintenance and operation” of government IT systems that have not yet migrated to the cloud.


Businesses may be over-paying for the cloud


Pay-as-you-go models for cloud hosting,


payment services


mean that some businesses could be overpaying, according to


networks and


communications service provider Claranet. The company,


which


has £130 million in annual revenues and more than 4,500 customers across Europe, has released the results of its third annual cloud adoption survey. It reveals that more than a third of large enterprises had adopted a multiple payment Continued on page 46


Wimax to boost staff with cash from Santander


“Always-on” wireless provider Urban Wimax Networks says it will increase its staff numbers to 35 following a £2.15 million investment from Santander. The company, a


which operates dual network


platform supplying more than 500 SMEs in London, secured the funding through the bank’s Breakthrough


programme


which supports high growth businesses. Wimax will add 15 new positions to its existing 20 employees. The firm operates a wireless which


network it claims


provides a 99.9 per cent service level agreement and also pipes a fibre line into its customers’ premises. The dual capacity means the firm believes it can offer 100 per cent always-on WiFi access and high odds against it ever going down. “We operate two separate


Robert: Warning


networks, one goes above ground and one goes underground, so we calculated Continued on page 46


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