Comms Dealer

Next Generation Data (NGD) is offering customers multiple rack data hall environments with contractual power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratios of just 1.0 - the most energy efficient rating on the scale prescribed by the Green Grid.

NGD's PUE 1.0 will be available to customers at its NGD Europe data centre in south Wales from the first quarter of 2015 and will be achieved by harnessing the latest solar power and free cooling technologies combined with a 100 % renewably sourced mains supply.

"The solar power generated will offset all essential facilities energy consumed when operating customer IT racks and storage equipment to deliver zero cooling costs and enable carbon emissions savings of 505,718 Kgs per year.

NGD's planned solar capability will make its 750,000 square feet NGD Europe facility one of the largest data centre rooftop solar deployments in the world. Following the final go ahead from NGD's Welsh Government landlord the 4,000 photovoltaic (PV) solar panel 'megawatt array' installation will be capable of generating one million kilowatt hours (KWh) of free 'green' electricity per year - the equivalent usage of up to 240 homes.

NGD is also deploying the latest Stultz GE cooling system technology which intelligently determines the best mode of operation according to ambient conditions and data hall requirements. It allows the system to operate in free cooling mode for the majority of the year, only providing supplementary cooling in times of elevated external ambient conditions.

Nick Razey, CEO, NGD, said: "We will ensure the highest level of resilience and stability is maintained thanks to our abundant 100% renewable energy direct-from-grid mains power supply and deployment of real-time energy management systems."

NGD's power transmission and energy optimisation initiatives have resulted in the total exemption from carbon taxation (CRC and CCL). The BREEAM rated NGD data centre building was sustainably constructed on the site of a former semi-conductor factory and has attained ISO 14001 environmental accreditation.

A scalable data-driven platform for UC management has been rolled out by Dell Software, offering analytics and diagnostics across Microsoft Exchange and Lync platforms.

Called Dell Unified Communications Command Suite (UCCS), the solution streamlines the management of multiple communication platforms and incorporates a reporting and diagnostic capability for workforce activity, communication consumption and system performance.

"Businesses lack a single source of truth across their UC platforms to compare usage patterns and trends, gain business insights on workforce activities, encourage adoption, speed migrations or increase ROI," said Curtis Johnstone (pictured), Senior UC product architect, Dell Software, and Lync MVP.

"This level of analytics gives each department within the organisation insight on how they gain the most value from the UC platform, turning data trapped in a business' communications systems into understandable, usable and actionable insights."

Curtis claimed that UCCS also plugs a gap in the Lync ecosystem in which 80% of organisations lack the reporting capabilities to ascertain whether their cost reduction goals are being met, according to a survey.

Just 17% of respondents have a dedicated Lync administrator, leaving the full UC management to IT administrators focused on other platforms.

"These statistics reinforce a gap in knowledge within organisations in terms of who is responsible for managing, communicating and educating employees on the adopted UC platform," added Curtis. "The Dell UCCS helps organisations take command of their UC platforms."

Shadow IT continues to drive a wedge between IT departments and the wider business, a trend that is likely to create uncoordinated and siloed IT set-ups with duplicated services and uncontrolled costs across the organisation.

That's the view of Andy Wilton, Claranet's CIO, who said: "Large numbers of IT leaders have more work to do to align their IT departments with the needs of the wider business."

He commented on new research by Vanson Bourne that found 67% of businesses had been commissioning and sourcing IT products from outside the IT department for two years or more, and over half of those surveyed felt that shadow IT activity would increase in their organisation over the next two years.

The rise of shadow IT is attributed to a speedier procurement process and a belief that non-IT people better understand the needs of the business and are therefore more likely to source the most relevant products

"Many CIOs feel tied down to just keeping the lights on, and while understandable, the knock-on effect of this approach is that more business leaders are taking it upon themselves to source their own IT," added Wilton.

"The risk is not that people outside the IT department are having a large role in procuring IT. Indeed, individual units within an organisation have a role to play because they bring specific knowledge of their requirements.

"But CIOs need to move beyond the gatekeeper function and embrace a new world in which they are able to provide the tools and support that business unit heads need to make effective, coordinated IT decisions."
The research follows a study by Deloitte that found that CIOs are twice as likely to prioritise the delivery of IT services over increasing profits, growth, and driving innovation.

Wilton added: "CIOs' budgets have been put under pressure since the recession so it is not surprising that many have had to focus on the basics. The problem is that businesses do not stand still and the consumerisation of IT has put more power into the hands of users than ever before.

"The good news is that IT budgets are, overall, on the increase. This will give space for IT leaders to find a new balance in their collaboration with their colleagues to innovate new solutions."

Abica Telecoms Group has expanded its business into the IT services sector with the acquisition of a significant stake in IT service provider PCR.

Abica, established in 2000 by David Munro and Gregory Barnett, is headquartered in Glasgow and currently delivers full service telecoms solutions including mobile, telephone systems and connectivity services to mid-enterprise businesses across the UK.

This acquisition is part of an aggressive growth strategy by the company as the combined telecoms and IT market continues to grow throughout the UK. The Group expects revenues to exceed £5m in the current financial year.

David Munro, Abica co-founder and Director, said: "We have seen a rising demand from our client base to provide IT and cloud services alongside our current telecoms offering.

"We had been looking for the right IT company for some time and PCR seemed the perfect fit for our growth plans, particularly as both businesses are focussed on delivering only the best in customer service.

"By acquiring this stake in PCR, we have significantly augmented our service offering, allowing us to seamlessly manage all telecoms and IT services for clients."

Gregory Barnett, Abica co-founder and Director, added: "Currently, Abica is looking at considerable expansion in the coming months as the demand for combined telecoms and IT services continues to grow at a rapid rate.

"We are looking to acquire other businesses in this sector as part of our buy and build strategy."

PCR was established in 2004 by Nick Cohen when he was just 13 years old. The company has grown from a small PC repair business to an IT service provider operating in the UK market. Cohen will remain a part of the business which will operate as part of the Abica Telcoms Group.

Pictured (l-r) David Munro, Gregory Barnett and Nick Cohen
 

BT could fold its Wholesale business into Openreach if the plan is approved by Ofcom.

The Telegraph has reported that BT Group has appealed to comms regulator Ofcom for permission for BT Wholesale, which recorded sales of £2.4bn last year, to become part of Openreach.

If the move is approved the enlarged Openreach would become BT’s biggest business with a turnover of approximately £7.5bn.

The move would bring the Group substantial savings through the removal of administration functions set-up to facilitate the operation of two separate entities.

The Wholesale business has declined from £4bn three years ago with shrinkage attributed in part to price controls set by Ofcom.

Adept Chief Executive Ian Fishwick commented: "I can see how BT would save money by merging Openreach and BT Wholesale, but we need to recognise that BTW also sell non-regulated products and this would need careful consideration when regulatory cost calculations are being done.

"Any proposal to merge the two would need to be very carefully scrutinised as the devil is very much in the boring detail. We should also keep in mind that Openreach still hasn't fixed its service quality issues and a merger could be a huge distraction."

Tollring has partnered with OrecX to deliver call recording playback and analytics within the iCS online application.

OrecX provides contact centres and business VoIP providers with call recording software that installs remotely in just 30 minutes.

iCS online, the latest mobile-ready call data visualisation application from Tollring, integrates with OrecX hosted call recording by utilising the latest web technologies.

OrecX call recording data is accessed via dashboards and wallboards within the iCS online application.

The call recording module enables recordings to be played, flagged, tagged and evaluated to provide users with a single analytics portal for a unified user experience.

Tony Martino, MD of Tollring, said: "The partnership enables OrecX customers to leverage best of breed features and functionality when it comes to both inbound and outbound call analytics, call quality monitoring and evaluation coupled with the resilience and reliability of the OrecX recording engine.

"For businesses looking for hosted call analytics and call recording, they can now access the complete package through just one interface."

Adept has announced to the Stock Exchange that it is hiking its dividend by 50%.

"There can be no greater sign of confidence in our business model," said Chief Executive Ian Fishwick.

"Historically, we have always announced half of our dividend at the Half Year, so by announcing 2.25p per share for the half year we are flagging our intention to pay 4.5p per share for the full year to March 2015.

"We have also given guidance that we intend to increase our dividends further over the next two years to 5.5p and then 6.5p.

"Revenue is up 11.3% and EBITDA up 12.7% thus demonstrating clear economies of scale. Our Free Cash Flow conversion in the Half Year was an impressive 92%."

Cobweb Solutions has opened its new London office at Canary Wharf. One Canada Square houses Europe's largest accelerator space, called Level 39. This was set up last year to encourage growth in the technology sector.

Cobweb is located on Level 42, the high growth space for larger companies where it will help to mentor and provide services to fledgling tech leaders.

The move is a logical progression for the UK-based company, according to Cobweb's Chief Technology Officer Julian Dyer.

He said: "Cobweb has always considered itself to be a London business as it already has a data centre in the heart of Docklands. This is now joined by our new London office in the heart of Canary Wharf.

"Our new office location will bring us even closer to our customers and partners. We want everyone to benefit from the personal approach we offer which will now be enhanced by the facilities and advanced technology provided by One Canada Square."

The new office includes a suite of offices, presentation and meeting rooms available for customers.

Coverage of Comms Dealer's annual awards extravaganza the Comms National Awards is available in video format with award winners interviewed by TV news presenter Bridgid Nzekwu just seconds after collecting their prizes.

The Comms National Awards (October 16th, London Hilton on Park Lane, London) are the most coveted and celebrated awards for the ICT channel, and to find out what put this year's winners on the road to success - click here

Node4 is hosting an educational event titled Cloud Clarity which will bring together industry experts and early adopters to help businesses understand how they can make the most of cloud services.

Cloud Clarity will provide an overview of cloud technology as well as compliance in the cloud for businesses not currently engaged with, or contemplating making use of cloud services.

The all day event will be taking place on Thursday 20th November 2014 at The Gherkin,London.

The event will also feature talks from guest speakers Simon Hazlitt, author of Running on Air, and Neil Cattermull, Director of Cloud Practice at Compare the Cloud.

Steve Denby, Head of Sales South, Node4, said: "Although cloud adoption is increasing all the time, we know that some businesses still don't fully understand the benefits that Cloud services can provide.

"By bringing together industry experts and our own team of cloud specialists at Cloud Clarity, we want to remove some of the confusion that surrounds the cloud and clearly demonstrate the level of flexibility businesses can achieve by hosting their IT solutions in a Cloud framework."

Neil Cattermull of Compare The Cloud added: "Choosing the right cloud solution can often be a daunting one, but it doesn't need to be a leap of faith. Businesses don't need to be cloud experts, but by increasing their basic understanding they can deliver significant value to their operations.

"Node4's Cloud Clarity will be a great forum for business leaders to develop the understanding they need."