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Kaseya Africa – An MSP Approach To Overcome The Dearth Of Technical Skills

Kaseya Africa Highlights

  • Targets Managed Service Providers
  • Focuses on creating a community, not a channel
  • Sees new communications opening up the African market – especially in mobile solutions
  • MSPs can make up for the dearth of technical experties
  • Thabo Mbeki’s initiatives to create standards of governance, agreements and freedom are central to economic developments in Africa

Kaseya’s Garth Hayward

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The $15.3 Billion Server Market – Surprisingly Buoyant In Q1 2012

Q1 2012 Server Update

  • Q1 was surprisingly buoyant, although the worsening economy threatens a decline in coming quarters
  • The market grew 1% to $15.3 Billion in the quarter
  • $60 Billion in the year
  • Unit shipments were 4 million in the quarter
  • The installed base reached 44 million
  • x86 servers 2% growth ($11.5 Billion) in the quarter
  • 4% x86 growth to $44 Billion in the year
  • Windows operating systems were 66% of revenues, Linux – 9%
  • A drop in IBM System z revenues set back the rise in virtualised servers
  • Virtualised server represented 37% of revenues: physical-only machines 63%
  • Revenues declined 2% in the Americas
  • Asia Pacific revenues grew by 2%
  • EMEA grew by 1% in local currency

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Asigra And Partners Push Cloud Backup

Asigra Highlights

  • Has deep technical knowledge gained over 26 years
  • Offers its agent-less software exclusively through its hundreds of global service provider partners
  • Is considering a new capacity pricing scheme – lower price for backup (close to the price of disk), but an ‘appropriate’ higher one for restore
  • Aims to prevent customers spending money on things they don’t use as a result
  • Is partnering with NetApp to offer ‘Data Protection as a Service’ (DPaaS) through service providers
  • Will have 3.5k functions in version 12 of its software
  • Is part of an inexorable, but slow replacement of tape with disk
  • Is a strong early Cloud Computing player

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Microsoft previews Surface – plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Microsoft Surface Highlights

  • Announces 2 Surface platforms – based on ARM and Intel chips
  • Includes a keyboard, making this a ‘convertible’
  • Will challenge Apple’s 94% share of the smart tablet market
  • Will compete directly with its PC OEMs in client devices for the first time and will need to balance its activities carefully
  • Signifies the most important move today away from the horizontal PC market

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IBM Builds Its Smarter Commerce Software Business Through Acquisition

IBM Smarter Commerce Highlights

  • Has spent around $3b on software acquisitions in this area
  • Focuses on software to support line-of-business in sales, marketing, procurement and customer service
  • Helps IBM compete as a close second to Oracle in the application software market
  • Hosts a conference in Madrid with 1,750 attendees
  • Is used by Ing for addressing customers’ emotional needs, Boots for its Advantage loyalty card activities and The Home Retail Group for extending its sales to new channels
  • Will continue to invest in acquisitions – probably in building its ‘Service’ business


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HP Networking – Management For Telcos And Enterprises, Wireless For BYOD

For our assessment and forecast for the whole networking market, please click here.

HP Networking Highlights Q2 2012

  • Built a large division by acquiring 3Com – adding it to its ProCurve business in 2010
  • Plays in the LAN, switch and router hardware markets
  • Offerings include including its FlexNetwork architecture, IMC VAN management suite and its Enterprise Mobility platform
  • Has an incremental approach to extending corporate applications to mobile devices connecting to networks as part of BYOD strategies
  • Takes a multi-vendor approach to the management of network devises, accommodating those from Cisco and others
  • Its approach is endorsed by Wellcome Trust, a large reference customer
  • Sees its role as adding IT skills to more traditional networking specialisation
  • Has a good networking approach necessary to build increasingly integrated systems

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IBM Launches PureSystems – An Integrated Compute, Storage, Networking and Middleware Approach

IBM PureSystems Highlights

  • Launches PureFlex and PureApplication – the first of a family of expert integrated systems accommodating compute, storage, networking and middleware
  • A physical manifestation of its Cloud reference architecture
  • Designed for ease-of-use and rapid speed-of-deployment
  • Introduces Patterns for capturing expertise in building infrastructure, platforms and applications
  • Launches the PureSystems Centre – quasi-appstore for Pattern cataloguing and distribution
  • Has certified 150 applications from 126 ISVs and launch among 600 available
  • Has an infrastructure-in-a-box approach, but is also highly pluggable through the inclusion of Storwize V7000
  • ISVs, SPs And Enterprises lacking the budget, energy or resources for highly active infrastructure maintenance likely to be early adopters
  • Demonstrates how far we’ve moved from the pick ‘n’ mix horizontal market of the past

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HP – The African Market Leader Invests For Growth

HP In Africa Highlights

  • Managed by Stefanos Giourelis
  • South Africa is by far the largest market, followed by Nigeria and Morocco
  • Has sub-regional management in East, South, West and French-speaking West Africa
  • Works on social development with CHAI and other charities
  • The Nigerian government is a significant reference customer
  • It expects African IT growth to be 6-7% in 2012
  • Management needs to be more flexible, although offerings are the same
  • Training graduates, turning them into professionals through training and retaining them is key to the future

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HP Cloud Reference Architecture Enhanced With Cloud Protection

HP Cloud Protection Highlights

  • Its delivery model outlines differences between Private, Virtual Private and Public Clouds
  • Its Cloud reference architecture has Demand, Delivery, Supply and Infrastructure layers
  • Its Cloud Protection functions are built into the architecture
  • Is applying security functions from legacy systems to cover and integrate with the Cloud.
  • The Bristol Business Lab hosts multiple visits from governments, 3-star generals and police forces
  • The G-Cloud demonstrator separates Infrastructure from Service Provider access and views
  • Is working on Forensic VMs ‘Forensic VMs’, where small ‘detectors’ investigate Virtual Machines, checking their memory for signs of infection.
  • Security resources include 1,400 staff from the acquisition of Fortify, Arcsight and Tippingpoint and 1,500 in HP Enterprise Security Services

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Comparetheware – A Comparison Site For IT Purchasers

Comparetheware Highlights

  • Opens a comparison site for IT purchasing
  • Generates qualified leads priced at £25 each for resellers
  • Charges suppliers £5k per year for basic inclusion, more for premium status
  • Will open to users in a few months time
  • Borrows techniques from consumer financial comparison sites
  • Needs strong momentum to build critical mass
  • Is a genuinely new go-to-market approach for the IT business purchasers

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RedHat RHEV3 – Alternative Virtualisation And Ecosystem

RedHat RHEV3 Highlights

  • Launches RHEV3
  • Has an Open Source approach – going against the tide of vertical integration
  • Offers lower-cost alternatives in the virtualisation market
  • It is not the hub of an ecosystem in the way Vmware, Microsoft and Citrix are
  • Is now a billion dollar software company
  • Has strong opportunities as users turn to KVM and Linux in database and Cloud Computing areas


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IBM Mainframes – Integrating Business Analytics With zBX

IBM System Z Update

  • Shipped 800 zBX with 450 blades
  • Signed 80 new System z customers
  • Encourages new mainframe participants with education and recruitment support
  • Has added Windows to the supported platforms on zBX and URM
  • Focuses on business analytics workloads with Smart Analytics System 9700 and 7100 alongside its Smart Analytics Cloud
  • We expect to see Security Analytics addressed in future through its Q1 Labs acquisition

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IBM Invests In Africa – ‘The Next India, The Next China’

IBM In Africa Highlights

  • Increased its presence from 4 main offices to over 20 today
  • Established a number of new locations to service Bharti Telecom
  • Has a high-end systems strategy
  • Sees Government, Banking and Telco as the strongest industry sectors
  • Runs regional management from Morocco, Tunis, Cairo, Nairobi and Johannesburg
  • We see Africa as a small region with tremendous growth prospects, dependent on long-term socio-economic trends

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Dell Storage Systems – Big Hat, Good Cattle

Dell Storage Systems Highlights

  • Has shifted from a reseller to an IP-based supplier status
  • Is integrating 4 acquisitions into its Fluid Data architecture
  • Is moving towards a common DFFS file system
  • Maintains PowerVault, EqualLogic and Compellent brands
  • Has to make up for the loss of EMC reseller business a year ago
  • Sees established storage systems suppliers as ‘Big Hats, No Cattle’
  • Will need to increase research, development and engineering spending to maintain innovation

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HP’s Adds Autonomy And Vertica To Its Information Optimization Strategy

HP Information Optimization Highlights

  • Vertica adds real-time parallel processing of structured data
  • Autonomy adds an analytics platform for all data (including unstructured sources from monitoring and social feeds)
  • Quotes scary market numbers for data growth, but claims it can help manage all enterprise data
  • Proposes an Information Optimization architecture, encompassing information use cases, sources management and optimisation layers
  • A valid start, but over-productises a services business

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How R&D, Innovation And Integration Will Help Reverse HP’s Market Share Decline

HP Market Share Highlights

  • Declined from 4.9% to 3.4% between Q1 2003 and Q3 2011 in the IT market
  • Fell in IT Service and Hardware categories, while growing slightly in Software
  • Fell continuously in the Americas and EMEA and despite growth, remains small in Asia Pacific
  • Has not recovered from 2008’s step decline in large accounts
  • Has done badly in Finance and Transport/… sectors
  • Has been maintained in Manufacturing and Health sectors
  • Should consider investing more than 2.6% of its revenues in R&D
  • Should focus on breaking internal silos by training and redeploying smart managers
  • Should build more integrated solutions with less dependence on broad horizontal partnerships

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IBM And VMware Find Common Ground In Storage And Server Hypervising

IBM and VMware Highlights

  • IBM is VMware’s biggest customer
  • Enhances IBM’s role as a storage hypervisor vendor
  • Matching approaches to server and storage hypervisors
  • 20k common customers
  • IBM addresses multiple APIs to make its storage hypervisor relevant within the VMware ecosystem
  • IBM Stretched Cluster extends vMotion usage to 300km
  • Work together on addressing the cost and latency issues of VDI
  • A potentially strong common go-to-market approach

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ITCandor 2012 Expectations – The Euro Crunch, African Investment And Mobile ITC

ITCandor Expectations 2012 Highlights

  1. The Euro Crunch hits – World ITC spending falls -1.4% to $6.5T
  2. Spending In EMEA And The Americas Fall, Grows In Asia Pacific – A Year For Africa
  3. Distributor business overtakes direct outbound sales – a year for aggregators
  4. Government and Manufacturing sector spending declines fastest
  5. Consumer falls at the same rate as business spending, will go lower in 2013
  6. Cloud Computing becomes a countervailing business – grows 10% to $1.1T
  7. Storage hypervisors give users the cost advantages of VMware in the server market
  8. Converged devices outsell PCs for the first time
  9. A staggered 4G rollout disrupts network and wireless markets
  10. Social media plays a vital role in political change

Click on the links above for our detailed predictions Read more »