Comms Dealer

In a move to bolster its play in the high growth flash storage market industry giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise is to acquire Nimble Storage, the provider of predictive all-flash and hybrid-flash storage solutions.

HPE will pay $12.50 per share in cash, representing a net cash purchase price at closing of $1bn. In addition to the purchase price, HPE will assume or pay out Nimble's unvested equity awards, with a value of approximately $200m at closing.

The overall flash market was estimated to be approximately $15bn in 2016 and is expected to be nearly $20bn by 2020, with the all-flash segment growing at a nearly 17% compound annual growth rate.

Nimble's predictive flash offerings for the entry to midrange segments are complementary to HPE's scalable midrange to high-end 3PAR solutions and MSA products. This deal will enable HPE to deliver a full range of flash storage solutions for customers across every segment.

HPE ALSO plans to incorporate Nimble's InfoSight Predictive Analytics platform across its storage portfolio.

"Nimble Storage's portfolio complements and strengthens our current 3PAR products in the high-growth flash storage market and will help us deliver on our vision of making Hybrid IT simple for our customers," said Meg Whitman, President and CEO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

"And, this acquisition is exactly aligned with the strategy and capital allocation approach we've laid out. We remain focused on high-growth and higher-margin segments of the market."

Nimble was founded in 2007 and has approximately 1,300 employees worldwide.

The company delivered revenue of $402M in its most recent fiscal year, up 25% year over year.

Suresh Vasudevan, CEO at Nimble Storage, added: "We're confident that by combining Nimble Storage's technology with HPE's global distribution strength, strong brand, and enterprise relationships, we're creating expansion opportunities for the combined company."

The deal is expected to be accretive to HPE earnings in the first full fiscal year following the close.

Mitel has authorised a share buyback programme under which the Canadian vendor may purchase up to 7,816,574 common shares representing approximately 10% of its public float.

As of February 28, 2017, Mitel had 122,036,009 issued and outstanding Common Shares, including a public float of 78,165,743 Common Shares. During the previous 12 months, Mitel has not purchased any of its Common Shares.

"Mitel is committed to delivering shareholder value," said Richard McBee, Chief Executive Officer. "This share buyback programme provides us with another lever to realise and maximise that value."

Mitel believes that having the ability to acquire Common Shares under the Normal Course Issuer Bid will present an attractive opportunity to utilise Mitel's available funds.

The Normal Course Issuer Bid is intended to permit the Company to reduce its total number of issued and outstanding Common Shares, thereby benefiting all shareholders by increasing their relative equity interests in Mitel.

The Bid will commence on March 9th 2017 and will terminate no later than March 8th 2018.

Subject to certain exceptions for block purchases, the maximum number of shares which can be purchased per day on the NASDAQ will be 25% of the average daily trading volume for the four calendar weeks preceding the date of purchase.

Researchers Gartner and IDC both forecast rapidly rising public cloud spending, hitting $203bn by 2020 as global IT outlay tops $2.65tn in the same year.

IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide says large enterprises (with more than 1,000 employees) will comprise half of all public cloud spending in 2017 as the segment vastly outperforms other parts of the industry.

"In 2017, discrete manufacturing, professional services, and banking will lead the pack in global spending on public cloud services as they look for greater scalability, higher performance, and faster access to new technologies," says Eileen Smith, program director, Customer Insights and Analysis.

"Combined, these three industries will account for one third of worldwide public cloud services spending, or $41.2bn."

While SaaS will continue to dominate, its share of the market will decline as spending on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) will grow at 30% and 32% respectively.

"While purchase priorities vary somewhat depending on company size, the leading product categories include CRM and enterprise resource management applications in addition to server and storage hardware," says IDC.

The cloud will become more distributed (through Internet of Things, edge services and multi-cloud services), more trusted, more intelligent, more industry and workload specialised, and more channel mediated, it says.

As the cloud evolves, these important new capabilities - what IDC calls Cloud 2.0 - the use cases for the cloud will 'dramatically' expand.

Distributor Mayflex is gearing up for the April opening of a training, meeting and demonstration facility in Maxim Business Park, Eurocentral (near Glasgow).

The facility will feature a M-Tech product demonstration area, as currently operated in London and Birmingham together with space for training sessions, meetings and presentations.

Tracey Calcutt, Marketing Manager, said: "As our field-based teams, customer base and product offerings grow, the need for a resource such as this situated close to our customers has increased too.

"Our M-Tech demonstration areas in London and Birmingham are popular, enabling customers to see firsthand the solutions we offer. We expect this 3rd M-Tech to be just as useful."

The demonstration and meeting areas will be made available to Mayflex customers where this resource can add value when presenting, demonstrating or discussing project specific points.

Sean Donaldson, Director of Sales for the Infrastructure range of products, added: "We have recently extended our Excel BDM team in Scotland and North East of England, so this addition to our sales armoury comes at an ideal time."

ICT suppliers can now offer their services through G-Cloud 9 (G9), the latest and 'best' iteration of the G-Cloud framework which opens the door to public sector opportunities for cloud service providers of all sizes.

According to UKCloud's CEO Simon Hansford (pictured) G9 is 'the best iteration yet' with improvements coming from consultations carried out by the Government Digital Service and Crown Commercial Service.

Hansford's high expectations for the success of G9 are reflected in UKCloud's just launched channel recruitment campaign to cultivate greater collaboration with more partners on public sector business.

The company launched its partner programme in November 2016 and has so far given circa 120 partners a leg up onto the G-Cloud Framework. "We're committed to continuing this momentum via G-Cloud 9," stated Hansford.

UKCloud has offered cloud solutions via G-Cloud since the Framework first went live in 2012 and has supported more than 465 partner projects across the UK public sector.

Hansford expects the improvements made to G9 to be the catalyst of more sales from a wider range of market sectors. He said buyers will be more receptive to a sharper emphasis on suppliers' security credentials and a slicker buying process through granular service categorisation, all helped along by simplified terms and conditions.

"IT companies wanting to break into the UK public sector market must be familiar with and overcome specific requirements when it comes to assurance, connectivity and commercial governance," added Hansford.

To help ambitious IT suppliers break into the public sector UKCloud offers a G-Cloud 9 check list, a 'How to Submit' guide and a Q&A forum that provides guidance on achieving the required security credentials, and the best ways to address the security questions that form part of the G9 submission process.

8x8 continues to make strong gains north of the border as it marches shoulder-to-shoulder with newly promoted Scottish Gold partner Exsel.

The Glasgow-based reseller joined forces with 8x8 one year ago and hit the ground running, putting in a sales performance that has been rewarded this month with an elevation to Gold status in 8x8's partner programme.

Exsel sold less than 50 hosted seats a month prior to its hook-up with 8x8, a partnership that within six months catalysed a sales boost that more than doubled revenues and registered an increase in ARPU.

In the full year since forming their partnership Exsel has gained more than 100 new customers including Loch Lomond Golf and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

The partnership is expected to push Exsel towards its 30% annual revenue growth goal and 4,000 seat per annum target.

Tom McDonald (pictured left), Exsel Group MD, commented: "We've seen some strong results working with 8x8 since 2015 and we're confident this latest step in our relationship will yield even greater rewards."

Charles Aylwin (pictured above), Director of Channel and Public Sector at 8x8, added: "Working with fast growing and motivated partners like Exsel is key to our strategy for growth."

Gold partner status gives Exsel more sales support and access to marketing development funds, building on the 8x8 Academy and existing partner support.

Exsel has witnessed particular success in reselling 8x8's Virtual Office, Virtual Contact Centre and EasyContactNow.

"8x8's software is born in the cloud so end users can use any device without the need for third party add-ons," added McDonald.

"This is particularly important as the growth of remote and flexible working means that most users expect to use the software on their phone."

Two months ago Exsel Group won £0.5m backing from private equity company Coralinn LLP.

The investment will create circa 50 jobs and fund new offices in Edinburgh and Ireland, adding to its existing offices in Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Comms-care has added three more Microsoft competencies taking its tally to eight Golds and four Silvers, making it the most highly accredited Microsoft channel-only service provider in the UK.

Included in Comms-care's recent achievements are two new competencies: Windows and Devices (Gold) and Collaboration and Content (Silver), while Comms-care has also upgraded its competency in Cloud Productivity from Silver to Gold.

Simon Day, Professional Services Director at Comms-care, said: "Achieving 12 Microsoft competencies showcase both the depth of our ability and our commitment to today's technology market. It also demonstrates our deep knowledge of Microsoft as a business and its technology."

Following 45.09% international sales growth per annum over the last two financial years and international sales of over £9m in 2015-2016, LA Micro has been ranked at number 67 in The Sunday Times Lloyds SME Export Track 100.

The company has grown significantly since it began its commercial life in 2004, having quadrupled the size of its premises and tripled its workforce in the past four years achieving a forecasted turnover of £24 million in 2016-17.

LA Micro's founder and owner, David Bell, said: "We have built our reputation for the service we provide through word-of-mouth, in turn attracting more business both domestically and internationally as customers become more aware of us and what we do."

The league table ranks Britain's top 100 small and medium-sized companies with the fastest growing international sales of between £5m and £25m in their last financial year.

Exclusive Group has restructured following two key promotional appointments. Julien Antoine, currently Group Director of Global Operations, is taking the new position of VP of EMEA while Will Smith, currently Group IT Director, increases his scope to become Group CIO.

"Our long-term success has always been centred on the ability to anticipate and adapt to disruption without diluting any of our value, and these important new positions will safeguard these strengths as we scale to new levels," said Barrie Desmond, COO of Exclusive Group.

Mike Ridgway (pictured) has been appointed Commercial Director of Mobile at Elitetele.com having completed an earn-out period that followed elite's acquisition of Qualitel Voice and Data in April 2014 where he was MD.

Qualitel became Elitetele.com's mobile arm and under Ridgway's leadership generated significant growth, achieving £4.m revenue in the 14 months to July 2014, £4.3m for the year to July 2015 and £6m for the year to July 2016.

Elitetele.com COO Russell Horton stated: "Mike has successfully led growth in his division and is on track to double gross margin over the three years."