Category Archives: EMEA

EMEA, Glasgow, Office Space, Scotland, Small business

New Ways of Working – Cloud Computing and Serviced Offices

Finding innovative solutions to problems has always been a hallmark of small and medium businesses keen to differentiate themselves from the pack. Being able to adapt to new ways of working in a modern business environment means looking at emerging technologies such as cloud computing, as well as considering alternative solutions to the traditional working environment such as serviced office spaces. We’ll look at each of these in turn to consider how using both these options work to your advantage in order to maximise the potential of any small business venture.

Cloud Computing

The main advantages of cloud computing for small business users are cost, scalability and flexibility. Gone are the days when it was necessary to purchase and maintain expensive physical infrastructure such as email servers or separate storage systems; cloud computing usually works on a subscription based model and allows your workforce to produce and collaborate on projects no matter where they are based.

Serviced Office Space

An increasingly popular option for small businesses, serviced offices offer all the benefits of more conventional office spaces but with a number of important advantages, chief amongst them being the reduced cost and flexibility that such an arrangement provides.

Fees are usually all-inclusive, saving you the trouble of having to account for additional costs such as building security and office maintenance, whilst giving you access to fully serviced premises. In Scotland, for instance, businesses looking to find Glasgow office space at i2office.co.uk can experience all the advantages such arrangements provide.

Small businesses can only benefit from advances in fields such as cloud computing and flexible working arrangements which allow them to keep costs down whilst providing an excellent service to their customers. Using the two in combination allows users to maximise their profitability at a time when economic circumstances have made it all the more difficult to survive those critical first few years and they are a welcome development for any potential new business.


Cloud gaming, EMEA, IPTV, Orange, Partnerships, Video game

G-cluster Global, Orange Group Strike Cloud Gaming Partnership

Beginning October 11, Orange broadband customers will experience a seamless and easy-to-access top quality video gaming experience directly on their TV.

The Orange cloud gaming service powered by G-cluster offers to Orange customers a gaming solution free of any old generation hardware concerns and allows them to easily access and play a wide catalogue of video games directly on TV.

With a catalogue of about 100 video games at launch, the Orange cloud gaming service provides valuable gaming content for the whole family! This innovative gaming solution provides many benefits for the end user: simplicity of access and use, attractive prices, a diversified and wide catalogue of games.

G-cluster has been rendering cloud gaming service since 2010. The launch of the Orange cloud gaming service reinforces G-cluster’s position as the leading cloud gaming platform in Europe.

As with video on demand, the end user can access games directly and quickly without the need to download content or purchase any new physical devices. To play, just use the remote controller or a gamepad (any USB gamepad or the one recommended by Orange). The end user can play alone, with other players in the same room or remotely with other Orange TV customers who have subscribed.

Orange offers a new model of usage for interactive content to its new TV users with an attractive price point. End users will be able to enjoy a diversified catalogue of games thanks to unlimited and no commitment monthly subscription packs or with 24h, 48h or 1 week rental offers. A free try-before-you-buy offer is available for all the games in the catalogue.

– Discovery pass: 5€/month for unlimited access to 50 top casual games

– Premium pass: 10€/month for access to premium console games on top of the entire catalogue of casual games

– Rentals: 24h, 48h or weekly rentals of games at affordable prices

Orange and G-cluster have partnered with top leading casual and premium publishers such as Disney, Ubisoft, Playrix, MumboJumbo and Alawar to provide a fun and entertaining experience to all the household members.

The Orange games on demand service will offer games for anyone in the family: action and air fighting games like H.A.W.X® 2 from Ubisoft and kids’ games like Toy Story 3 from Disney. Pixar.

Erik Piehl, president of G-cluster Global says, “G-cluster is very happy to provide its white-label cloud gaming service to Orange, the largest IPTV provider in Europe. This further expands G-cluster’s lead as the largest scale TV cloud gaming provider.”

Jean-François Rodriguez, VP Games and social media at Orange says, “Orange and G-Cluster have built a strong partnership to offer a new gaming experience by leveraging on Orange high speed broadband network and G-Cluster cloud gaming technology. After Video on Demand, streaming music, Orange customers will now enjoy games on demand service.”


Colocation centre, Data center, EMEA, Hosting, Partnerships, SIP Trunking

Gamma announces partnership with City Lifeline to offer London colocation services

City Lifeline, the central London colocation data centre, has announced a strategic partnership with Gamma, a network communications provider. This new partnership will provide Gamma with first rate colocation services, which will in turn boost its reliability and recommendations among potential channel partners.

Working with City Lifeline, Gamma will deliver a broad range of voice, mobile and data services designed specifically to take to market through its channel partners. Gamma is the UK’s market leader in the provision and supply of SIP Trunking services to mid-market enterprises and hosted voice and application service providers. SIP Trunking and the centralisation of telephone numbers is enabling the hosting of voice and data services previously handled by PBXs in colocation centres.

Adding Gamma SIP Trunking services to a colocation infrastructure will add cost effective, easy to deploy voice services that will enable the support of its customers that work across more than one location. Further, this will allow the company to drive more colocation space sales.

Alan Mackie, Head of SIP Services at Gamma, said: “Thanks to the help of City Lifeline, we can take our market leading services to the next level.The trend for SIP Trunking is accelerating at a rapid rate, so a service that allows us to save money and improve service really is invaluable. As a company we are dedicated to innovation and efficiency, which is why we chose to partner with a company like City Lifeline, which shares these values so openly.”

Roger Keenan, managing director at City Lifeline, explains: “We are thrilled to partner with Gamma, as we can both benefit from one another’s expertise, locations and connectivity. This new relationship enhances both our company’s portfolio of product offerings and will lead to further business opportunities for us both. Most importantly, this new relationship is helping to boost the productivity of two ambitious UK businesses – which shows our economy is really getting back on track.”


Business process automation, EMEA, EQT Partners, M&A Activity, UC4

EQT VI to acquire UC4 Software Group

EQT VI has agreed to acquire UC4 Software Group  from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, the founder Franz Beranek and management for an enterprise value of EUR 220 million.

UC4 is the world’s largest independent IT Process Automation software vendor. UC4’s ONE Automation platform delivers IT Process Automation helping organizations to manage increasingly dynamic and heterogeneous IT landscapes, and to migrate to cloud computing as the next generation of IT service delivery. The Company has recently complemented its product portfolio by offering Application Release Automation on its existing ONE Automation platform.

The Company has a strong and loyal customer base with roughly 2,050 blue chip customers including more than 70 of the Global Fortune 500 companies. The Company roughly generated revenues of EUR 62 million in the past fiscal year ending in April 2012 and is headquartered in Wolfsgraben (close to Vienna), Austria and Bellevue, US.

“We consider UC4 a highly attractive growth company and are impressed by its customer base and strong automation offering. The new Supervisory Board, consisting of a mix of highly relevant and experienced EQT Industrial Advisors, looks forward to supporting UC4′s management team in driving further expansion into the rapidly growing Cloud Automation market”, says Per Franzén, Partner at EQT Partners in Germany, Investment Advisor to EQT VI.

“We are very pleased to welcome EQT VI as our new owner and look forward to working together with EQT VI and the new Supervisory Board to realizing the growth potential of UC4. EQT’s industrial focus with a very strong line-up of Industrial Advisors will be of great value to UC4 and to us as a management team when developing the Company over the next years”, says Jason Liu, CEO of UC4.


Business process automation, EMEA, EQT Partners, M&A Activity, ONE Automation, UC4

EQT VI to acquire UC4 Software Group

EQT VI has agreed to acquire UC4 Software Group  from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, the founder Franz Beranek and management for an enterprise value of EUR 220 million.

UC4 is the world’s largest independent IT Process Automation software vendor. UC4’s ONE Automation platform delivers IT Process Automation helping organizations to manage increasingly dynamic and heterogeneous IT landscapes, and to migrate to cloud computing as the next generation of IT service delivery. The Company has recently complemented its product portfolio by offering Application Release Automation on its existing ONE Automation platform.

The Company has a strong and loyal customer base with roughly 2,050 blue chip customers including more than 70 of the Global Fortune 500 companies. The Company roughly generated revenues of EUR 62 million in the past fiscal year ending in April 2012 and is headquartered in Wolfsgraben (close to Vienna), Austria and Bellevue, US.

“We consider UC4 a highly attractive growth company and are impressed by its customer base and strong automation offering. The new Supervisory Board, consisting of a mix of highly relevant and experienced EQT Industrial Advisors, looks forward to supporting UC4′s management team in driving further expansion into the rapidly growing Cloud Automation market”, says Per Franzén, Partner at EQT Partners in Germany, Investment Advisor to EQT VI.

“We are very pleased to welcome EQT VI as our new owner and look forward to working together with EQT VI and the new Supervisory Board to realizing the growth potential of UC4. EQT’s industrial focus with a very strong line-up of Industrial Advisors will be of great value to UC4 and to us as a management team when developing the Company over the next years”, says Jason Liu, CEO of UC4.


EMEA, G-Cloud, Government, Guest Post, IT service management

Examining the G-Cloud Initiative – How the UK Public Sector is moving to the Cloud

Guest Post by Ben Jones

Ben Jones is a tech writer, interested in how technology helps businesses. He’s been assisting businesses in setting up cloud based IT services around the south of England.

There’s a cloud on the horizon of Whitehall. But this isn’t a prediction of stormy times ahead. No, this is the G-Cloud, and it’s being heralded by some as government’s biggest ever IT breakthrough.

In years gone by, the government has been accused of paying too much for IT contracts, many of which were won by a small number of suppliers. But now, the G-Cloud initiative aims to change this. The online system called, CloudStore, is part of the government’s plans to slash IT costs by £200million per year. So how is this going to be achieved? Well, the target is to move half of the government’s IT spending to cloud computing services and the CloudStore, also dubbed the government’s app store, is the key.

It was first announced as a government strategy almost 18 months ago in March 2011 with specific aim of making IT services for the public sector easier and cheaper. This means ditching the expensive bespoke IT services with lengthy, expensive contracts. Instead this initiative aims to replace these with more choice both in suppliers and, as a result prices. It’s a radical change in the historic approach by both the government and the public sector. Furthermore, cloud computing has the potential to be a global governmental strategy, with the American government already having its own version in place. And a look at the figures gives a clear indication why, with some governmental departments reporting a drop in the cost of IT services by as much as 90 per cent. And following the first CloudStore catalogue launch in mid-February, some 5000 pages were viewed in the first two hours, and in the first ten weeks, contracts worth £500,000 were signed. In this first procurement, around 257 suppliers offering approximately 1700 services were signed to the first G-Cloud CloudStore.

It’s the government’s attempt to bring competitiveness to its suppliers, encouraging a wider selection and promoting flexibility in procurements thus allowing more choice to the public sector. And what’s interesting is the mix of both small and medium sized businesses with over half of the suppliers signed to the first CloudStore being SMEs. This includes the likes of web hosting company Memset whose managing director Kate Craig-Wood backed the G-Cloud Services, who says they offered value for money for the taxpayer.

This new initiative heralds a new era for the British government and the wider public sector. And it’s hoped the new IT system will put paid to the Government’s history of ill-advised and mismanaged IT projects. That’s not to say there haven’t been any concerns over the G-Cloud Initiative. Some key concerns have related to how it’s going to be rolled out to public sector workers across the UK with some employees having fears over security as well as a lack of understanding. However, these haven’t stopped the second round of procurement for the G-Cloud in May 2012 with the total procurement value now available there soaring to £100 million. And in this time, the framework will run for 12 months and not the six as per the first iteration. This year-long contract will then become the standard, although it has been reported that this could be extended to 24 months in certain cases.


Arrow ECS, Arrow Electronics, Cloud computing, EMEA, Information technology, IT Management

Arrow ECS EMEA Launches ArrowSphere Cloud Services Platform for IT Channel

Image representing Arrow Electronics as depict...

Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions, a business segment of Arrow Electronics Inc., today unveiled ArrowSphere, a cloud services aggregation and brokerage platform for the European solution provider community, system integrators, independent software vendors and service providers.

Through ArrowSphere, Arrow ECS is adding new growth opportunities for enterprise and midmarket business solutions for the channel. ArrowSphere will enable the Arrow ECS European channel network to resell aggregated cloud services, such as infrastructure-, platform-, storage- and software-as-a-service solutions, from industry leaders around the world. ArrowSphere brings new dimensions to cloud delivery by facilitating access to more than 60 leading-edge cloud services, in addition to adding flexibility with white-label webstores; increasing simplicity by centralizing billing and provisioning; and improving reliability through trusted single-sign-on solutions.

“By offering turnkey webstores that address the needs of today’s and future businesses, we bridge the gap between cloud service provider innovation and solution provider market reach,” said Laurent Sadoun, president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region for Arrow ECS. “This approach represents the much-needed catalyst that can drive significant cloud adoption through the channel over the next five years.”

ArrowSphere is available to the IT community in the United Kingdom (beginning July 11) and will be available in September in Denmark, France, Germany and Spain, with other countries to follow.

“Migrating legacy IT systems to the cloud, connecting cloud solutions to existing on-premise infrastructure and supporting these hybrid solutions are complex undertakings for small and midsize enterprises. Solution providers are the trusted advisors that routinely help businesses integrate IT services securely and efficiently,” said Sadoun. “Arrow ECS is proud to offer the IT community a unique opportunity to enter into the cloud. This strategy of investments toward added value and the channel will guide innovation forward for our partners as well as the entire IT industry.”

“The ArrowSphere platform allows us to address new markets and new business in a fast and simple way, and it therefore represents a massive revenue opportunity for us,” said Shamus Kelly, managing director of Portal, an ISV working with Arrow ECS in the U.K. “Being able to leverage a turnkey webstore with our own solutions and the services portfolio developed by Arrow ECS puts us in a solid position to embrace the cloud. Also, it gives us the flexibility to adapt to our customers’ needs.”

More information about the ArrowSphere marketplace for cloud services, including details about the portfolio, is available online at http://sphere.arrow.com.


Avnet, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA, M&A Activity, Magirus, Middle East

Avnet Aquiring Magirus Group

Avnet, Inc. announced today that it has agreed to acquire the Magirus Group (Magirus), a leading pan-European distributor of data center solutions and services. Magirus is a leading value-add distributor of software, systems and related services encompassing virtualization, storage management, cloud computing, security, intelligent networks and information life-cycle management services. Through its professional services portfolio and knowledge of the IT sector, Magirus enables business partners to take new technologies to market in eleven markets throughout Europe and the Middle East. The transaction, which is subject to normal regulatory approvals, is expected to close in October 2012.

Phil Gallagher, president of Avnet Technology Solutions, Global, commented, “The acquisition of Magirus will significantly enhance our competitive position in Europe and the Middle East by expanding our suite of solutions in high-growth technologies. Magirus increased its revenue 20 percent in calendar 2011, delivering powerful, flexible and cost-effective data center solutions from a breadth of suppliers, including Cisco, VMware and EMC. We welcome the knowledge and expertise of their talented management team and staff, who will allow us to further enhance the value we provide to our customers and suppliers.”

Founded in 1981, Magirus has 400 business and technical professionals that help over 4,500 resellers, system integrators and IT service providers develop and deploy IT infrastructure solutions that bring together traditional server, storage and network operations so that constantly changing business requirements can be supported more efficiently. Its services span demand generation, pre-sales, consultancy, training, certification, implementation as well as support from its pan-European, multi-lingual support center. Magirus generated revenue of approximately US$530 million in the 2011 calendar year, and will be integrated into Avnet Technology Solutions’ EMEA business.

Graeme Watt, president, Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA added, “Magirus is a high quality focused business and represents an excellent expansion to our current operations as it adds complementary product lines across the region while meaningfully increasing our scale in important markets including Germany and France. Magirus’ position with market-leading suppliers in high growth technologies will bolster our solutions practices and create significant cross-selling opportunities in the combined customer base. Its business model is a strong fit with our strategy to provide more value-add services, and the combined expertise of both organizations will enable us to accelerate the success of our customers and suppliers.”