Indispensable channel analysis

MicroScopemicroscope.co.uk

June 2014

◆ HOW NEW RULES FOR FLEXIBLE WORKING AND SHARED PARENTAL LEAVE COULD AFFECT CHANNEL BUSINESSES

◆ WHAT GROWING DEMAND FOR RAPID, AGILE APPLICATIONS MEANS FOR SUPPLIERS

◆ THE MONTH IN IT ◆ OPINION ◆ REVIEWS ◆ LETTERS ◆ FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW ◆

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PLUS: ◆ ACES WINNERS ANNOUNCED

◆ THE BATTLE TO PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ◆ PROMOTING THE BENEFITS OF UNPLUGGING UNUSED KIT

HP swings axe again after second quarter numbers disappointHewlett-Packard is having to swing the axe even deeper than it had planned, with more job cuts announced following the vendor's decision to release its earnings early and reveal it had missed revenue targets.

Revenue for the firm's second quarter was down 1% year on year, at $27.3bn, missing expectations by $110m. Second quarter net earnings rose to $1.3bn, up from $1.1bn for the same period last year.

HP announced that up to 16,000 more job cuts will have to be made. The guidance that between 11,000 and 16,000 heads will have to be cut comes on top of previously revealed plans to trim the global workforce by 34,000 as the vendor continues on a turnaround plan to strengthen the business’s position.

Internet service providers to alert users over pirate downloadsCreative industry bodies trying to fight internet piracy have got a step closer to making it harder for users to download illegal copies of music, films and software applications, with leading internet providers – includ-ing BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media – agreeing to send out educa-tional letters to customers who have downloaded illegal content.

Cracks appearing in IBM and NetApp OEM relationshipThe storage hardware OEM relation-ship between IBM and NetApp ap-pears to be unravelling, with Big Blue likely to take the option to strike out alone using its own products to try to increase revenues. The suggestion that the two storage giants might be changing their relationship emerged after reports that IBM is to stop sell-ing NetApp products sold under the N Series label.

HP shuffles channel enterprise management teamHewlett-Packard has shuffled its UK channel management team in the en-terprise group, with Kevin Matthews making way for a veteran of the ven-dor, Johnny Ansell, as the firm looks to freshen things up. The decision to appoint Ansell ends a five-year spell for Matthews running the enterprise group indirect business in the UK and comes at a time when the need for change has been identified by senior UK management.

Cisco boss appeals to Obama to get spooks out of supply chainCisco boss John Chambers has writ-ten to the US president expressing his worries that the National Security Agency (NSA) is intercepting prod-ucts in transit through the channel and modifying them to spy on cus-tomers. The revelations that some IT equipment in transit has been tam-pered with by the NSA forced Cham-bers to put pen to paper and address Barak Obama directly over an issue that could have widespread implica-tions for the channel.

Logicalis is shining star for DatatecDouble-digit growth at Logicalis helped parent Datatec deliver good numbers for its financial year, while Westcon came in for some criticism for under-performing. Logicalis delivered a 15% revenue increase, reporting $1.55bn for the year to 28 February and a 16% improvement year on year in gross profit to $360m. Westcon reported a 6% climb in turnover to $4.06bn, but gross profits increased by just 2% and operating profits were down by 37%.

EMC looks for Scottish channel growth with Baur appointmentEMC has appointed its first channel manager North of the border to work out of its Livingston base as it looks to deepen its channel relationships with Scottish resellers and target the key vertical markets in the coun-try. Mark Baur takes up the role as channel development manager for Scotland, coming into EMC with a CV that includes spells at Dell, Com-mVault, Hitachi and NetApp.

Dimension Data is first to gain Cisco Intercloud statusDimension Data has become Cisco's first Intercloud partner, just two months after the vendor launched the scheme that aims to provide a global cloud platform that uses the expertise of partners. Dimension Data will provide Cisco with access to its managed cloud platform, which is delivered via 10 cloud platforms around the world.

Billions wasted on unused softwareEuropean firms are wasting billions on unused software because they either cannot see a use for all of the product functionality or do not have the skills in-house to get the best out of their investments. According to Sage research, European firms waste an average of €43,000 each year through the under-deployment of soft-ware. This adds up to €9.6bn of poten-tial wasted spend across mid-market companies.

3G tablet sales collapse in the face of increased Wi-Fi salesSales of 3G tablets collapsed across Western European in the first quarter of 2104, according to industry analyst firm Context. It attributed the decline to the growth in Wi-Fi-only tablets after analysts measured channel sales of 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi-only tablets in 18 countries across the region. It found distributor sales of 3G tablets almost halved in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period a year ago.

Accenture snaps up Enkitec as it ramps up Oracle businessIn a bid to galvanise its Oracle practice, management consultancy Accenture is acquiring Enkitec, an Oracle platinum partner with expertise in Exadata implementa-tions and database administration and development. Financial details of the planned acquisition have not been disclosed. Accenture aims to use Enkitec to help clients improve performance and reduce costs by transforming existing datacentres and business applications that utilise Oracle database technologies.

IBM makes Watson supercomputer storage available commerciallyIBM is releasing into the commercial arena the underlying storage technology that made its supercomputer Watson such a big hit on the US TV quiz show Jeopardy, in which it trounced two of the game show’s former champions.

The technology is being released as a portfolio of software storage products designed to enable organisations to access and process any type of data. Big Blue claims users can carry out data processing out on any storage device anywhere in the world.

Watson processed 200 million pages of information, including the full text of Wikipedia, during its appearance on the quiz show. With each question, the system scoured 4TB of content to present the most probable response within a few seconds. About 5TB of Watson’s knowledge were loaded, in minutes, into the computer’s memory during the show.

the month in the channel

JUNE 2014 | 2Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

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Channel businesses, be proud of the way the channel has voted for you, your peers have appreciated your position in the market and customers have wanted to validate your support

MICROSCOPE ACES AWARD WINNERS

A fter a rigorous submission and judging process fol-lowed by a public vote from resellers, distributors,

vendors and customers, we are now able to reveal the winners of this year’s MicroScope Awards for Chan-nel Excellence.

The standard this year has been truly outstanding, with entrants from across the channel once again dem-onstrating their commitment to meet-ing and exceeding the high standards and expectations placed on them by

Reseller categoriesn Vertical market reseller of the year:

Imerjan Innovative reseller of the year:

Bytes Softwaren SME reseller of the year: Bytes

Softwaren Managed services reseller of the

year: Olive Communications

Distribution categoriesn Software distributor of the year:

Avnet Technology Solutionsn Hardware distributor of the year:

Ingram Micron Networking distributor of the year:

Cloud Distribution

their customers and proving – if proof were still needed – that IT is truly the powerhouse of the econom-ic recovery.

“The entries were exceptionally strong this year, with most containing solid customer and channel referenc-es to back up claims of excellence,” said our judging panel.

“There were also signs of the tran-sition in the industry towards man-aged services, with channel provid-ers using that approach to the market popping up in most categories.”

n Security distributor of the year: Exclusive Networks

n Storage distributor of the year: Hammer

Technology categoriesn Cloud technology of the year:

CentraStagen Networking technology of the year:

Kempn Security technology of the year:

Swivel Securen Software technology of the year:

Paesslern Storage technology of the year:

Violin Memory

SIMON QUICKE EDITOR’S COMMENT

The time has come for the hopes and dreams of the nation to go through the ringer once again as the World Cup kicks off.

It is also a time when MicroScope recognises the winners in the channel, with those that have landed an Award for Channel Excellence (ACE) getting the good news right here.

It might sound like a cliche, but it is true that we had a strong field of entries and more voting this year than in the past, indicating that there were some very keen chan-nel players out there looking to land an ACE.

It is also a fact that everyone who made the shortlist should be incredibly proud of themselves. Looking through the submissions, what stood out was not only the quality, but the standard of examples provided as evidence of the applicants’ capabilities.

Time after time there were examples of multi-million pound projects that had given resellers an incredible amount of responsibility which had not only been met but exceeded. Distribution also displayed that it is giv-

ing increasing thought to its role in the channel world and adding value wherever possible.

Vendors, too, showed an appreciation for the channel through product design and delivery, with some of the winners of the technology awards coming up with some-thing that could easily slide into a reseller solution sale. It is easy to say that the channel is important, but sadly there are many cases where it seems to get forgotten when it comes to product design.

It is always a privilege to read through the entries and be involved with the process of delivering the shortlist. MicroScope wishes to thank the other judges who spent time doing the same to help us choose from a field of very strong contenders.

Congratulations to all those channel businesses that have won an ACE – it is well deserved. Be proud of the way the channel has voted for you, your peers have appreciated your position in the market and customers have wanted to validate your support.

All we need now is for England to do something amazing in Brazil and this could even be a summer where success extends beyond the channel. ■

If you would like details of forthcoming themes running in the MicroScope ezine or wish to make a contribution, email squicke@techtarget.com.

Can ACEs kick off a summer of glory?

THE 2014 MICROSOPE ACES WINNERS

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MicroScope ACEs 2014 winners announced

More details about the MicroScope ACEs 2015 will emerge later this year, but do get in contact if you would like further details of how the awards work. ■

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk JUNE 2014 | 4JUNE 2014 | 4

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Promote the cost and environmental benefits of unplugging unused kit

“The financial risk of not removing the servers usually outweighs the potential risk of causing an outage when removing an under-utilised server” Scott Killian, Uptime Institute

NICK BOOTH REPORT

The Uptime Institute is, as its name suggests, quite a risk-averse organisation. It tends to err on the side of caution

if there’s any suggestion that systems might not be available. But even it is encouraging members to take a hatchet to their IT infrastructure.

The institute’s third Annual Server Roundup awards encourage enter-prises to scale down their IT – with-out taking any risks, obviously. And it’s amazing what savings can be made, when IT bosses put their minds to it.

Power cuts save costsThis year’s winner was Barclays, which axed 9,124 physical servers from its datacentres in 2013, using virtualisation techniques to spread the load more efficiently. This cuts power consumption by 2.5MW, shav-ing US$4.5m off the electricity bill.

This amounts to freeing up 588 server racks, 20,000 network ports and 3,000 SAN ports. Barclays esti-mates that it has saved US$1.3m on legacy hardware maintenance costs. It must have upset a few commercial property agents too, as datacentre footage is three times as expensive as any other type of office property.

In second place was Sun Life Financial, which replaced 441 serv-ers from its datacentre with 54 newer, more efficient models and converted 75 physical machines into virtual servers. This saves 115kW, cutting 100,000 Canadian dollars from Sun Life’s utility bill.

Pulling the plugMost datacentres are full of these zombie servers, and it’s about time we went to war with them, says Matt Stansberry, the Uptime Institute’s director of content.

“Most shops do not have a disci-plined approach to the lifecycle of applications and workloads. There can be applications sitting on servers that no one uses and old versions that were kept running while new ver-sions were released,” he says.

Often there’s no financial incentive for IT departments to fix the problem, because it’s the facilities management teams that pay the power bills. “One of our winners last year told me in confidence that it actually costs them

money to remove servers – spending the staff time to physically go in and remove it off the floor and make all the adjustments,” says Stansberry. The IT boss doesn’t see the financial gains from getting that power, cooling and port capacity back.

As Uptime Institute founder Ken Brill used to say, “Nobody gets pro-moted for going around the datacen-tre unplugging servers.”

Channel opportunitiesSurely there’s room for some kind of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative here. Big corporations have massive budgets for CSR, so surely some of that could be spent on resell-ers/systems integrators to help them lower their carbon footprint. Not to

mention their power bills. And their hogging of the national grid.

Scott Killian, the Uptime Institute’s vice-president of energy pro-grammes, advises resellers to approach the relevant product and operations people and get their buy-in, as they are the people that assume the risk, if there really is any. “This is typically done through a change management or workflow approval type of process,” says Killian. “The financial risk of not removing the servers usually outweighs the poten-tial risk of causing an outage when removing an under-utilised or coma-tose server.”

John Matthew Holt, CTO of Java virtualisation specialist Waratek, says most financial sector organisa-

tions have already virtualised at the hardware level. But there are still inefficiencies.

“Up to 70% of enterprise applica-tions will be idle at any one time, wasting valuable server resources. Given that up to eight copies of every application may be kept live for each one in use, sectors such as banking, e-commerce and telecoms can make significant operational savings from allowing virtualised Java apps to nap when idle,” says Holt.

Waratek’s involvement in the Fin-tech Innovation Lab found potential cost reduction of server infrastructure and total cost of ownership of between 50% and 90%, This could potentially save the financial services industry $300bn over five years, it says.

Tony Occleshaw, director of mar-keting communications at Micro Focus, says you might want to get into IBM’s channel. “There is grow-ing evidence that IBM mainframes are being used as platforms to provi-sion Linux and Windows virtual machines for users,” says Occelshaw, “The original virtual machine could be back in fashion and at a lower cost of ownership.”

Like IBM, Kemp Technologies is looking for partners in this area. Atchison Frazer, its CMO, identifies a security angle for selling these ration-alisation services. The big problem is that IT departments let legacy servers go out of service or support. They also fail to update IOS versions, secu-rity patches, compliance and govern-ance controls. “Inadvertently, they create windows of vulnerability for hacker or malware attacks that threaten business continuity,” says Frazer. They also create a window of opportunity for the channel.

Financial services is probably the best market to attack, says one insider, because they have deep pockets and often buy the most expensive line items. Their kit will be distributed to niche workgroups – like high-frequency trading – so they’re constantly moving equipment in and out of datacentres and co-loca-tion facilities to get the fastest possi-ble response times.

X86 machines, like true zombies, will never die. So it’s up to the chan-nel to take them out. They just need to find the right allies first. ■

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X86 machines will never die. So it’s up to the channel to take them out

The Children and Families Act 2014, which received royal assent on 13 March 2014, makes key changes

to the law in relation to vulnerable children, children whose parents are separating, children with special educational needs, working parents and adoption.

However, although the headline involves children and families, by definition, the Act will have an im-pact on employers. In particular, em-ployment law will change in relation to flexible working and shared paren-tal leave, which takes effect at the end of June.

Also, from 1 October 2014, pro-spective fathers or a mother’s partner may take time off work for up to two antenatal appointments.

Flexible working rules From 30 June 2014, the rules in rela-tion to flexible working will change, widening the category of employees eligible to make a request for flexible working. The intention here is that the overall productivity of the work-force should increase, with staff turn-

and the decision is notified to the employee within three months (in-cluding any appeal/appeal decision).

Under the new rules, employees will have the option to agree an ex-tension to this timeframe with their employer and this might be of bene-fit, for example, where an employer suggests a trial period before a final decision is made.

To ensure that employers handle requests in a “reasonable manner”, employment advice organisation Acas has produced a draft code of practice that will be given statutory force and be taken into account by any tribunal. The code of practice provides simplified guidance on how the decision process should look.

Employers should first arrange to talk to the employee as soon as possi-

New rules for flexible working and shared parental leave

Mark Stevens looks at the implications for employers of law changes affecting flexible working arrangements and shared parental leave that come into force this year

ble. This should be a professional conversation out of earshot of other members of staff, with the employee having the right to be accompanied.

Even if an employer intends to grant the request, it is advisable to speak to the employee first because the need for flexible working may only be temporary, and this is impor-tant for an employer to know so it can manage its workforce effectively. Alternatively, an employer may in-tend to refuse the request but, after discussions with the employee, real-ise a compromise can be reached.

Business impactEach request should be considered carefully and objectively, weighing the benefits of the request for the em-ployee and the employer’s business against any adverse business impact. Under current law, the request can only be refused on the basis of one of the eight business reasons set out in s80G(1)b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Whatever the decision, the em-ployer should inform the employee, preferably in writing to ensure clarity.

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over and sickness-related absences being reduced.

Until 30 June, only parents of chil-dren under 17 years old (or 18 years old if the child is disabled) or those registered as carers are eligible to make a request for flexible working. But as of 30 June, all staff with 26 weeks’ continuous service will have the right to request flexible working as long as they have not already made a request in the last 12 months.

As well as widening the category of eligible employees, the statutory procedure contained in the Flexible Working (Procedural Requirements) Regulations 2002 will no longer apply. This will allow employers more flexibility in how they handle requests as long as the requests are dealt with in a “reasonable manner”

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The intention is that the productivity of the workforce should increase, with staff turnover and absences reduced

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If the request is accepted, the em-ployer should discuss how the changes will be implemented and de-tail any changes in terms and condi-tions. If the request is refused, the employer should provide a valid business reason and notify the em-ployee of their right to appeal.

Although many employers already allow flexible-working requests from all staff, employers will no doubt be worried about the influx of new re-quests and the lack of guidance on how to treat competing requests.

There will certainly be a risk of employers reaching saturation point. It is therefore encouraged to ask other employees, who are already working flexibly, whether they would like to return to work full time.

Employers will also need to be careful not to inadvertently discrimi-nate against employees who are mak-ing a request in relation to the Equality Act 2010 for reasonable ad-justments in working.

Getting it wrongEmployers that fail to deal with a flexible working request in accord-ance with the required procedure risk facing an Employment Tribunal complaint. Failure to follow the correct procedure may result in a tribunal ordering the employer to re-consider the employee’s application and potentially pay the employee compensation.

Perhaps more seriously, an em-ployee may argue that the reason for their employer rejecting their flexible working request was discriminatory, and seek compensation from an Em-ployment Tribunal for the injury to feelings that they have suffered as a result. The awards for discrimination are uncapped.

Shared parental leaveIt is proposed that the draft shared parental leave and pay regulations will come into force in October 2014 and will apply to babies born on or after 5 April 2015. These new regula-tions will also apply to adoptive par-ents. There are also draft maternity and adoption leave curtailment regu-lations that will allow individuals to curtail their entitlement to maternity/adoption leave to take shared paren-tal leave.

The regulations as currently draft-ed are particularly complicated and

Employers cannot refuse shared parental leave, but they can refuse discontinuous blocks of leave

in need of simplification. The gov-ernment is expected to publish fur-ther guidance this summer.

These regulations are intended to provide a change in culture and en-courage flexible working. Mothers will have fewer barriers to career pro-gression and will be able to return to work after the birth of their child without having to wait until the child is 20 weeks old before their partner can go on leave.

Maternity leaveMothers will continue to be entitled to 52 weeks’ maternity leave, but the new regulations will allow them flexibility as to whether to take all 52 weeks as maternity leave or share some leave with their partner.

Mothers must take two weeks’ compulsory maternity leave, but the remaining 50 weeks can be taken as maternity leave or as shared paren-tal leave, provided the mother (or main adopter) has curtailed her maternity leave.

Fathers will continue to be entitled to two weeks’ paternity leave imme-diately after a child’s birth, but addi-tional paternity leave, whereby the father could take a further period of 26 weeks once the mother had gone back to work and the child has reached 20 weeks old, will be re-placed by the new regulations.

For an employee to be eligible for shared parental leave, they must have 26 weeks’ continuous service at the relevant date (at the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth or the notified week of

adoption) and still be employed in the week before shared parental leave is due to start. The employee’s part-ner must also have 26 weeks’ contin-uous service and meet the minimum earnings test.

It is proposed that statutory shared parental leave pay will apply for 39 of the 52 weeks (reduced by any ele-ment of statutory maternity pay re-ceived by the mother). The first six weeks will be paid at 90% of the av-erage weekly earnings, before tax, of the parent who is on leave.

The further 33 weeks will be at 90% or £136.78 a week, whichever is the lower. It is, of course, open to em-ployers to pay enhanced shared pa-rental leave pay.

Eight weeks’ noticeEmployees are required to give their employer eight weeks’ notice of their intention to take shared parental leave (including an indication of the pattern of leave requested) or to curtail their maternity leave. This should help reduce uncertainty for employers.

The regulations also contain de-tails about how many times an em-ployee may request a change to their shared parental leave pattern and in what circumstances and by using what procedure an employee may change their mind.

Alternating blocksShared parental leave will allow a mother and her partner to take 50 weeks concurrently, separately or in alternating blocks of at least one week at any time up to 52 weeks from the date of birth (or the date the child is placed for adoption).

Employers cannot refuse shared parental leave, but they can refuse discontinuous blocks of leave. It is worth noting that a company policy of refusal may result in discrimina-tion issues.

Smaller blocks of leave could be advantageous for both an employer and an employee, particularly where the period of leave would otherwise cover a critical time for the employee in terms of promotion, or the employ-er in terms of work demand or the need for specialist skills.

Right to retain a jobThe right for an employee to retain their job remains the same: if the period of leave does not exceed 26 weeks, the employee has the right to return to the same job. This will apply whether or not the leave is taken continuously. If the period of leave exceeds 26 weeks, the employ-ee has a right to return to the same job or, if not reasonably practicable, a similar job.

Keeping-in-touch daysMothers on maternity leave will still be entitled to 10 keeping-in-touch (KIT) days. The new regulations will provide 20 additional KIT days for each parent on shared parental leave.

It remains to be seen what reme-dies may be available to employees if their employer fails to act in accord-ance with the new regulations. It is likely that a failure to implement the rules correctly will result in employ-ees raising grievances and pursuing Employment Tribunal claims against their employer.

Again, employees are likely to argue that they have suffered dis-crimination and will seek compensa-tion from their employer for the inju-ry to feelings they have suffered.

SummaryEmployers are advised to examine the changes carefully and implement new policies for both flexible work-ing and shared parental leave in con-sultation with employees and their representatives.

Current maternity, paternity and adoption leave policies will need to be amended in light of the changes and employers should also consider amending their current disciplinary policy to include the provision of fraudulent information in relation to shared parental leave in the list of in-stances amounting to misconduct/gross misconduct.

It may also be wise for employers to provide precedent forms to ensure employees include all of the pre-scribed information in their notice or request. This could be particularly useful for flexible working requests, serving as a means for the employer to enquire whether the request is in relation to the Equality Act 2010. ■

Mark Stevens is a solicitor at Veale Wasbrough Vizards.

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Employers could face an industrial tribunal if they fail to observe the new laws

Back in June last year, Bloor Research director Philip Howard wrote a blog sum-marising some of the main

points arising from his company’s recent survey of the independent software vendor (ISV) market.

“Perhaps the most interesting sta-tistic was that 75% of ISVs were still just concentrating on traditional ap-plications that improve current pro-cesses, rather than on developing ap-plications that enabled new ways of working,” he wrote.

Internet of thingsHoward was surprised at how few were working actively in areas such as the internet of things and IBM’s Smarter Planet, but acknowledged that it may have had something to do with the fact that most of those sur-veyed were in the UK and the ISVs may have been “behind the curve”.

It emerged that a lot of them were not catering for the passé cloud con-stituency either, with only 50% of ISVs saying they had a cloud strategy. The bulk of those that didn’t have one said it was because they “felt there was no business case for cloud deployment”.

Leaving aside the opportunities presented by big data and the internet of things, there does appear to be a consensus that cloud and mobile are strong areas for ISVs to concentrate

ISVs must move with the timesMany independent software vendors have yet to get to grips with the cloud and mobile, let alone the internet of things and big data, says Billy MacInnes. But as demand for rapid, agile applications increases, ISVs will need to up their game

on, even if opinion is divided over how they get there.

Research company Saugatuck pub-lished a 20-page research report in October last year, titled Transitioning to Cloud Business: Best Practices for ISVs, which indicated that many un-derstood the technical aspects of the cloud transition.

Much more riskBut the report’s author, Saugatuck vice-president and distinguished analyst Mike West, warned: “What is less understood and more dangerous for ISVs are the changes required in other areas of the business that are typically much deeper and harder to execute, and often entail much more risk.”

In a blog published in April this year, Robert Bates, head of the manufacturing solution, strategy and architecture group at Wipro

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Instead, they identified cloud-based implementations and mobile device support as the major trends for their businesses.

Howard suggested this reflected a sector that was “perhaps not as fast-moving as some others”, describing cloud and mobile as “obviously im-portant” but almost passé.

However, he noted that big data and the internet of things reflected “life on the bleeding edge and ISVs don’t tend to cater for this constituency”.

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“What is less understood and more dangerous for ISVs are the changes required in other areas of the business” Mike West, Saugatuck

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Technologies, wrote that most ISVs were probably considering the obvious move of migrating their current or brand new systems to the cloud.

But he said this could “create pres-sures akin to a product sold at the local store down the street [being] moved into a multinational retailer with store fronts in every country”.

Bates added that ISVs had “had their world turned upside down over the past five years as standard con-sumption models of pay per seat, or pay per compute, have been expand-ed into micro-transactions, ambient commerce, and utility integration in service stacks”.

Two distinct groupsMark Armstrong, EMEA vice-president and managing director at Progress, believes the independent software vendor market is “at a similar crossroads to the one it faced in the mid- to late 1990s, when faced with the new age of web-based services and applications”.

He adds: “What we are seeing is a split between two distinct groups. There are existing ISVs with estab-lished customers, infrastructure and frameworks already in place, and also newer, younger entrants to the market capable of offering more niche, agile solutions.”

Armstrong predicts that the de-mand for rapid, agile application de-velopment will increase and, as a re-sult, ISVs are starting to work with a “broader range of organisations and performing a wider range of func-tions”. Newer ISVs are also looking beyond the enterprise to SMEs that don’t have the time to develop their own applications.

“Today’s (and tomorrow’s) ISVs will be capable of supplying to a broader range of customers because the cloud does not consider whether the ISV is capable of working with a large enterprise, but just that the ap-plication solves a problem,” he adds.

Niche applicationsTraditional ISVs are developing cloud and mobile strategies, says Armstrong, but “new ISVs are offer-ing niche applications to the market, and the customers and users of the ISV and CIO, respectively, are con-suming them as fast as they become available”.

“ISVs are faced with the challenge of adapting offerings to run in the cloud and in a virtual environment”

Jeff Williams, global account man-agement and channel partner man-agement at SafeNet, picks up on Armstrong’s point about consump-tion. “Consumers want to consume based on their preferred features, pre-ferred usage times or just based on their personal needs,” he says.

But to adapt to their customers’ changing needs, ISVs “have to move away from their core development excellence and allocate valuable re-sources to catching up with licensing solutions, entitlement and packaging solutions, all of which are not their core USP”, says Williams.

In addition, a fundamental shift is taking place in how applications are delivered and maintained. “Licensed on-premise solutions are being re-placed by software-as-a-service

(SaaS) applications,” says Williams. “As a result, ISVs are faced with the challenge of adapting offerings to run in the cloud and in a virtual environ-ment, including not only resources and technology, but also licensing models that appropriately monetise SaaS applications.”

Williams believes many ISVs and developers “are struggling to figure out how they can compete in a mar-ket that is increasingly becoming more cloud-centric”. The move to cloud is very different from what they are used to, he says.

Long-term investments“Typically, they have made long-term investments in applications that are deployed on-premise and therefore were not originally developed to be offered as a service.”

This is an issue highlighted by Saugatuck’s research, which consid-ered the difficulties facing estab-lished ISVs with legacy, on-premise software businesses to manage, and said: “Retaining customers and cash flow while launching a new cloud business can mean striking a deli-

cate and shifting balance in manag-ing resources.”

ISVs needed to have a plan to man-age the transition from legacy on-premise platforms to the evolving cloud platform, the report said.

Progress’s Armstrong says applica-tions need to be developed with easy integration and access to data and data sources across multiple plat-forms. “Rapid development and inte-gration are the basic requirements of today’s applications,” he says, “and those who treat the development of on-premise applications as separate to those hosted in a cloud environ-ment will lose out in the long run.”

ISVs also need to demonstrate how they can offer an integrated approach to all their products, says Armstrong. “With a proliferation of cloud-based applications on different platforms, accessing and making sense of that data is essential,” he adds. “ISVs need to have a data access and inte-gration strategy in addition to a development strategy.”

SafeNet’s Williams warns: “All ISVs should look to explore cloud, if they have not done so already. The

Many ISVs and developers are struggling to work out how they can compete in an increasingly cloud-centric world

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software suppliers

JUNE 2014 | 9Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

cloud has the potential to offer true differentiation and innovation for ISVs looking to better serve the user.”

Among the benefits cloud provides are real-time access to information and data which, given the right tools, enables software providers to update user preferences immediately, says Williams. “With the cloud, ISVs can define service catalogue and business models, provision service agreements and control user authentication.”

The cloud business model is also something ISVs need to get to grips with if they are to succeed. But they face the challenge of how they are going to make money in a cloud envi-ronment, says Williams.

“The advent of mobile computing via smartphones and tablets has given way to masses of mobile appli-cations,” he says. “Every day, new apps are released. However, the vast majority of download volumes are being attributed to free apps, so de-velopers now need to start thinking about how they protect and license their solutions.”

Software usage trackingWilliams believes ISVs need to use software usage tracking and analyt-ics to develop and price software in line with customers’ needs. “ISVs need to know how their software is being consumed, right down to what buttons are being pushed and how often,” he adds.

This can help them make better investment decisions and prioritise where engineering and development resources should be targeted, based on real-life use of their products, he says, and can “also help ISVs to provide flexible and sophisticated pricing models based on a customer’s use rather than user-based licensing.”

Williams says real-time access in the cloud will enable software pro-viders to measure customer usage for business intelligence. “Being able to understand customer usage and adapt the service to meet their needs in real time is invaluable and enables software providers to put customer experience at the heart of development and delivery,” he says. “This not only reduces customer churn, but also expands the software providers’ reach to markets that were previously untapped.”

Armstrong says this is “an exciting time to be a developer” because ISVs can work with so many different types of organisation on so many dif-ferent types of application. But ISVs are also coming under increasing pressure to develop consumer-like applications.

Armstrong argues that this can present its own challenges because if they use application platform as a service (aPaaS), they can end up being locked into a specific cloud supplier.

“This vendor ‘lock-in’ means de-velopers are restricted in the scope of their applications, as well as the number of platforms they are able to operate on, which can be limiting commercially,” he says.

However, there is a benefit in being able to take an idea to market quickly “because it has platforms that will enable that idea”, says Armstrong. “ISVs don’t build apps for the sake of developing code; they build an app to turn an idea into reality.

“In the 1990s, entrepreneurs had the ideas, but the technology did not necessarily allow the idea to become real quickly. Now, aPaaS platforms, which enable this rapid develop-

ment but without vendor lock-in, will enable these new ISVs.”

Ian van Reenan, CTO and co-founder of CentraStage, agrees that the “ability to execute on an idea is now within the reach of almost anyone, thereby eroding the advan-tages previously held by the estab-lished players”.

But while this improves competi-tion in the market, van Reenan says it can also lead to “the proliferation of poorly developed software in the market and increased challenges in finding and recruiting great develop-ers”. He adds: “I think we’re a genera-tion behind in educating kids as to the possibilities out there.”

Rock starsLike Armstrong, van Reenan says it is a good era for developers, who are “no longer the back-office staff of 10 years ago”. He adds: “They are the rock stars and many of them are lead-ing some of the biggest and fastest-growing companies [in the technol-ogy industry].”

Van Reenan urges ISVs to “hire the best possible developers they can af-ford” if they want to be well-placed to develop, sell and support the soft-ware technologies that will provide the best opportunities going forward.

“They should create an environ-ment for experimentation, learning and innovation,” he says. “Always assume that someone else is trying to upstage you. Make sure that your software does what it says on the tin, and address any shortfalls as your first priority.”

Armstrong says ISVs should try

not to be limited in the number of platforms for which they can devel-op, or the number of countries they cater for. “Flexibility is the watch-word of the modern ISV,” he says, “and the ability to meet demand from all comers in the face of technological and cultural change will be a key consideration in the coming months and years.

“An application that can be de-ployed on any cloud platform, public or private or on-premise, will provide the best future-proofing to the invest-ment of the ISV.”

Van Reenan says that, irrespective of what the promise of new platforms can deliver for ISVs going forward, it is imperative that they make sure they retain their existing customers.

“In a competitive market, your ex-isting customers are your most valua-ble ones,” he says. “Have open and honest conversations with your users and understand how you can make a difference to their business.

“In a SaaS world, you build mutual partnerships with your user base –you’re not selling them software.” ■

“Developers are now the rocks stars and many of them are leading some of the fastest-growing companies” Ian van Reenan, CentraStage

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more online› UK more than doubles funds to build internet of things

› Vendor/channel partner engagement weak, says survey

› A mobile-first development approach to enterprise apps

Many feel this is a good time to be a software developer, with ISVs able to work with many different organisations on many different kinds of applications

The battle against software piracy has been ongoing for years and shows no sign of letting up. As the stakes

continue to rise, the creative sector of the UK economy continues to need protection.

Much has been done to raise the profile of intellectual property (IP) protection. Along with some of the large software vendors such as Mi-crosoft, industry lobby groups such as the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) continue to do their best to catch those who break the law, working with government to take further steps to improve the situ-ation for those dependent on their in-come from the fruits of their IP.

In recent weeks, there have been indications that more steps will be taken to highlight the issue of piracy. Internet service providers (ISPs) are likely to start sending alert letters to those users who continue to illegally download content such as software, music and films.

But at the same time, research from FAST has highlighted a significant number of stubborn next-generation users in the workplace who refuse to stop illegal downloads and have no fear of letters or fines.

Resistance to IP policingThe FAST findings revealed that although a fine was the best way to deter from piracy those who were worried about being caught, a quarter of respondents did not seem to care and revealed that nothing would put them off breaking the law.

“We still have a long way to go to change attitudes towards intellectual property,” said FAST CEO Alex Hil-ton. “When we asked the simple ques-tion whether enforcement action taken by ISPs had altered behaviour pat-terns, only 20% stated that it had. A massive 71% of those asked claimed it had made it harder to download the content they wanted, but had not stopped them. The most startling fig-ure was the 10.5% who said it made no difference whatsoever.”

Hilton recently staged an event at Westminster where the efforts being made by the government to create a more positive environment for IP were discussed and the lobby group was able to introduce supportive speakers who were keen to stress how seriously the current govern-ment took the situation.

Among those speaking at the event was Mike Weatherley, MP for Hove and Portslade and IP advisor to David Cameron, who told the assembled audience that much had been done but efforts must continue.

When presented with the latest

prevent and negate. It’s also facilitat-ed by the abundance of reverse-engi-neering information now found on-line, providing easily available tools and knowledge to anyone who wants to find it.

“Software piracy can significantly damage the UK software communi-ty,” said Williams. “Our research showed that just over 40% of soft-ware producers thought lost revenue due to software piracy had a major impact on their business. Not only can it stunt revenue potential, it can also negatively affect paying custom-ers who bear the cost of illegal prod-uct use and limit the software com-munity’s ability to be competitive, leading to higher-priced, less ad-vanced products.”

How to protect softwareThere are some things that can be done to protect software, but the main advice seems to be one of constant vigilance, with software producers working within a larger ecosystem to try to make sure they can keep the latest threats to their intellectual property at bay.

“It’s crucial that software vendors work with the licensing vendor and/or a hardware protection manufactur-er to constantly update and improve the level of security. Simply incorpo-rating innovative protection and se-

Protection of intellectual property is ongoing battleIP theft shows no sign of abating as many illegal downloaders admit they have no fear

of the consequences if they get caught. Simon Quicke and Amro Gebreel report

curity measures as part of the product lifecycle can greatly contribute to being steps ahead of potential threats,” said Williams.

“Ten years ago, licensing tended to be focused on controlling the number of users and eliminating piracy. That’s still the case, and software suppliers will always want to protect their IP, but there are many more ele-ments to consider now. The market has shifted from a sole focus on re-moving piracy, towards a greater focus on ‘software monetisation’. This still encompasses ‘control’, but also sees vendors placing equal (and sometimes more) importance on how their products and services are pack-aged, how they are managed and how their customers are using them. By focusing on what they can actually control, software vendors can boost revenues the right way – by enabling customers to license their software the way they want,” he added.

With the industry continuing to do its best to change legislation, increase awareness and use technology to pro-tect IP, the battle against the pirates continues. As the FAST research in-dicated so clearly, the software world is nowhere near being able to rest on its laurels. Resellers and ISVs will still have to beat the drum to protect those who dream up the applications we all use on a daily basis. ■

intellectual property

JUNE 2014 | 10Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

FAST findings, Weatherley respond-ed: “Over the past few years the UK government has adopted a dual ap-proach to IP protection. On the one hand, we have worked with the IP in-dustries to help educate the public as to the consequences of IP theft. Through this we have seen a concert-ed effort from not only the software vendors but music and film compa-nies as well, making their business models attractive to users.

“The alternative approach of a beefed-up enforcement regime is also playing a powerful role, as these re-search findings seem to indicate. Consumer behaviour is beginning to change, as attitudes, accessibility and affordability all come into play. But we have a long way to go, as there ap-pears to be huge resistance in a large section of society,” he added.

Cost of theft to businessFor now, it seems, revenue will con-tinue to be lost to illegal downloads and under-licensing, which means those in the industry trying to safe-guard revenue face a difficult situa-tion to keep working with.

Jeff Williams, global account man-agement and channel partner man-agement at SafeNet, told MicroScope software piracy is an ever-increasing problem because it is widespread, difficult to trace and even harder to

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opinion

Implementing the Government Security Classifications PolicyGovernment departments and their suppliers will need to change how their assets are classified going forward under the GSCP. But there’s no reason to panic if your risk management is well structured, says Louise Dunne

to demark risk without the need to carry out independent assessments. After all, the data hierarchy and IL were related to the risks posed to the organisation, so surely this made sense? There was a cost: tethering these strategies together led to rigidi-ty and an inability to respond flexibly to emerging risks. But in the overall scheme of things, classification-driven risk ticked the right boxes… until the overhaul of the system and launch of the GSCP.

GSCP is not a radical undertaking. The plans are for it to be gradually phased in and applied to new assets, making it essentially a form of transi-tion and change management. It will replace old protective markings when information and other assets naturally reach end of life; this will be a generational change. By manag-ing information as a lifecycle process, the GSCP has the potential to create far more effective and efficient work-ing practices across government and bring about the necessary cultural change and reform that the policy is helping to deliver as part of the Civil Service Reform Plan.

Clearly the GSCP is not a case of ‘out with the old and in with the new’, and any organisation or suppli-er which conducts security classifica-tions correctly has little to fear. The problem comes for those that have used security classifications as the sole basis for risk management. Such organisations may well feel the labels have been ripped off and they don’t know where to start.

SubstitutionThe temptation is to substitute one set of labels for another. The GSCP

will include ‘applicable threat pro-files’ (much like those used in the private sector), which will be very useful in informing risk management thinking. Organisations reliant on ILs will no doubt find the threat profile concept confusing and the danger is that one set of criteria will simply be swapped out for another rather than applied diligently and systematically, as they are meant to be. In many ways, public sector organisations will find it extremely difficult to make a straight forward swap. ‘Official’ as-sets, for instance, will not be labelled by default.

Security classifications alone will not be enough for these organisa-tions to employ an appropriate ap-proach to risk management. Consid-eration will also have to be given to, for example, business objectives, legal obligations and social remit or operational requirements to provide the necessary context to support a truly informed risk-driven approach to management.

Transitioning to the GSCP should happen at all stages of the data lifecy-cle, from creation to realisation to cessation. By including all aspects of the data lifecycle when transitioning to the GSCP, its benefits can be fur-ther realised. Fundamentally, this is about more effective risk manage-ment. Organisations need to identify what is valuable and why, under-stand the associated risks, and em-ploy appropriate and effective miti-gation. Effective risk management is a complex business, with the GSCP being but one (admittedly very im-portant)x consideration, instead of risk management being determined solely by classification.

What’s in a name?If good risk management is in place, GSCP should represent little more than a name change. Organisations which do conduct proper risk assess-ments and devise risk management strategies based on the nuances of the organisation and its business objec-tives, much like in the private sector, will find GSCP easy to implement be-cause it is viewed as standing alone as a method of security classification and access criteria.

Irrespective of previous misde-meanours, the GSCP presents a real opportunity to tackle risk manage-ment effectively. Security classifica-tions and risk management policy, though interlinked, should never be synonymous. By distinguishing be-tween security classifications and risk, management activities can be-come more responsive and agile, ena-bling the organisation to anticipate and counter threats more effectively. Truly capable risk management pro-cesses and practices are a fundamen-tal aspect of the government’s ICT, cyber security and digital strategies.

When all is said and done, a security classification label is finite, whereas risk is a constantly changing variable. ■

The GSCP is not a case of ‘out with the old and in with the new’, and any organisation or supplier which conducts security classifications correctly has little to fear

RISK MANAGEMENT

Top secret documents only for the eyes of those with the requisite security clearance never fail to elicit a James

Bond-esque thrill. Security classifica-tions are synonymous with privilege, providing access on a need-to-know basis. Yet government assets seldom self-destruct in 60 seconds and need effective management from the cradle to the grave. Such data may even pre-sent a risk to the organisation if it falls into the wrong hands, as a result of which security classifications are often closely linked with risk management.

Security classifications remain as vital today as they were in Fleming’s day, providing an effective way to order, categorise and protect data as-sets. But somewhere along the way, security classifications became dis-jointed. In addition to ‘top secret’, we had ‘secret’, ‘confidential’, ‘restrict-ed’, ‘protect’ and ‘unclassified’, and users were often confused as to how to differentiate between them. More-over, classification could change over the course of its lifetime as the value of information changed.

Clearly a rethink was needed to simplify the process, and in June 2012 provision was made in the Civil Service Reform Plan for a streamlined security classifications system. This saw the existing six tiers reduced to just three: ‘top secret’, ‘secret’ and ‘of-ficial’. Dubbed the Government Secu-rity Classifications Policy (GSCP), the three-tier system came into effect in April 2014, making it easier for gov-ernment departments, agencies and their public sector suppliers to work with security classifications easily and thus more diligently. Yet the new system has caused widespread con-cern and consternation across the public sector. Why?

Information mismanagementThe answer lies in that original com-plex array of six layers and a serious mismanagement of information secu-rity. Many organisations saw the ex-isting protective marking system and associated business impact levels (ILs) as a quick risk management fix. By looking at both systems, organisa-tions reasoned it would be possible

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk JUNE 2014 | 11

Louise Dunne is managing director of data, ICT and security consultancy Auriga

reviews

Small box packs a big punch with data backup, streaming and remote access

pitch is probably a good idea.The Central boasts a 4TB capacity

(it is also available in 2TB and 3TB options) and operates by being plugged into a router, compatible with both PC and Mac. From there, it can be used to store music, video and picture files and then stream them to other devices.

Those other devices can include a PC, Smart TV and games console in the home, but also, thanks to tablets and smartphones, it can provide users who have downloaded the free Seagate app with the option to back up their mobile content to the Cen-tral, as well as the ability to browse and enjoy their content elsewhere.

Being browser-based, there is a high degree of flexibility about the in-teraction that a user can have with their data, and for resellers looking for a clear and simple example of

For resellers looking for a clear and simple example of what the cloud can do, the Seagate Central is an ideal product to talk about

DATA BACKUP

So much has been said about the cloud that it is very easy to lose sight of just how powerful and easy the tech-

nology can be and of the numerous places it is starting to crop up.

One of the well-worn phrases is the concept of private cloud, but working out what that could mean once you step outside a corporate office envi-ronment isn’t always that easy.

But it is possible to take a product that would sit in a home or small of-fice situation and use it to show off exactly what a private cloud can mean. For our purposes, the chosen device is the Seagate Central.

The product really qualifies as network attached storage (NAS) for the home network, but for many users the whole concept of NAS will be alien and perhaps skipping that particular acronym in the sales

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk JUNE 2014 | 12

what the cloud can do, this is an ideal product to talk about.

Storing and sharingOne of the other big themes the tech-nology exposes is the fear that most of us have around the thought we could lose some of our precious data. Locking things up on a hard drive or trying to use a cloud service will not appeal to everyone. Firstly, because of the possibility of theft, and sec-

› Click for more details on the Seagate Central device

ondly because of the risk of damage causing the PC-based information to get corrupted. Those opting for cloud storage services also have concerns about consistency and could find mounting costs become a problem.

The Central deals with both issues. By sitting away from a PC, it can act as a backup for the desktop, as well as operating as a mobile backup via a free app. It provides a large capacity for a single price that should look after a user for quite a while.

Setting the device up was straight-forward, and although the first back-up – in our case of 680GB – took a fair amount of time, once it got the data the opportunities to access that remotely and share videos on an Xbox 360 quickly became apparent.

The reason a product like this delivers more than just storage is because of the remote access functionality

that will introduce, for the first time, the concept of a private cloud to many users.

If it manages to solve storage head-aches and ease backup concerns, then that is its purpose, but for resell-ers looking to encourage more cloud thinking in their customer base this product also acts as a door opener. Once set up it will provide even the most hardened of sceptics with evi-dence that streaming content over the web need not be a headache.

What was science fiction just a few years ago is now a small box with a green light that sits alongside the router and provides the user with backup, streaming and remote access to content at a fair price, thanks to its ability to support Sea-gate apps without the headache. ■

community

JUNE 2014 | 13Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

“The challenge of keeping billions of internet-connected devices running is not a technical one – but one of scale” Ian van Reenen, CentraStage

READERS’ LETTERS

Remote monitoring/management key to unlocking internet of thingsIan van Reenen, CTO and co-founder, CentraStageThe term internet of things – or IoT – is quite ambiguous, but it has quickly become a tangible technology that is set to affect businesses across the world. In simple terms, the IoT in-cludes any technology that can be used to collect information and man-age systems.

The IoT is generally seen as a col-lection of single-purpose consumer devices that are connected to the in-ternet. This has historically excluded smart devices such as laptops, serv-ers and mobile phones; however, the emergence of embeddable micro-computers, such as the Edison from Intel, has opened up the possibility of intelligence everywhere, where all devices are smart, multipurpose and self-aware – and therefore require management.

When we founded CentraStage in 2006, we coined the strapline “Every Device Counts”. Our thinking is that unless you have visibility and control of all of your devices – regardless of location or network – you can’t be certain that everything is as it should be. IoT platforms are the convergence of remote management and monitor-ing, endpoint management and big data, and we are already building the systems to manage this ecosystem.

As it does with everyday servers, laptops, tablets and phones, the ef-fectiveness and performance of the internet of things will come down to the reliable monitoring and man-agement of the underlying devices and systems. Ensuring that they are working correctly, and fixed or re-placed when they are not, is going to require scalable, secure and reliable platforms to provide real-time perfor-mance monitoring of the myriad de-vices that will supply, and act on the data produced by, IoT systems.

The real IoT is down at the ma-chine level, where data is exchanged between connected devices and decisions are made automatically, based on pre-determined thresh-olds and process logic. Now things become more interesting and, of course – to borrow a theme coined by Google – a little creepier. Now

your watch tells your heating that you’re on your way home, so crank it up just a few degrees, and ask the fridge to check for milk.

In parts of London, motorists can pay for metered parking with their smartphones and get notifications when their time is about to expire. Startup 24eight is looking for a partner to manufacture its wireless nappies that will alert parents with “wet nappy” notifications, and Dutch company Sparked is embedding transmitters in the ears of cows to monitor their health and prevent the spread of disease.

All these systems rely on data to automate their actions – and it is this data that determines the decisions that they will make on our behalf. This data is either real-time, supplied by sensors, or based on historical data that must be stored and analysed. This is the realm of big data and the focus of many IoT services. Who owns this data, who has access to it, and how long it can be stored for will be the subject of many debates as the IoT evolves.

Should your health insurance com-pany monitor the contents of your fridge in return for lower premiums? Or how about your energy company monitoring your movements to opti-mise your heating bill? These moral dilemmas are fast approaching and if we are going to have confidence in their compliance, then we’d better have confidence in the quality of the data they will base their decisions on.

Gartner estimates there are cur-rently 1.4 billion computing platforms worldwide, and yet projects this to grow to 20 billion by 2020 with the

Mark Flynn, UK managing director, Snow SoftwareMicroScope readers will be only too well aware of the wide range of spurious “awards” given out in the IT industry. Awards are very important because they highlight best practice and tell us about who is leading the way in their particular fields. That’s all standard stuff, but where the whole “awards thing” falls down is with the increasing incidence of awards programmes that are pure tokenism. Someone in senior management thinks it’s a good idea to pick a “pet reseller” and nominate them for “partner of the year”. This practice is becoming far too commonplace for my liking.

Some might say it’s a harmless PR exercise, and everyone knows it, but that is misleading in the long run. Although consumers are cynical and sceptical of PR, its influence remains strong.

The role of the channel is to simultaneously serve the (sometimes) conflicting interests of user and vendor as well as they can. So why should partners which are not performing as well as their counterparts be acknowl-edged for results simply because that is deemed strategically beneficial? Users rely on channel partners to deliver the best possible solutions and maximise their IT investments. How can they be confident about this if the industry bases its success criteria on token awards? Far more powerful and helpful for the industry as a whole is to select the recipients of awards based on strong commercial performance and customer retention rates. That’s what we do and, while it might ruffle a few feathers, as indeed I am sure this letter probably will, it’s the right way to operate.

This year we had our partner awards at our annual kick-off and we were proud to hand out four awards to our top-performing partners. They’ve earned that success after a lot of hard work.

Credit only where credit is due

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advent of the IoT – a phenomenal rate of growth. The challenge of keeping that number of devices running is not a technical one – but one of scale. Overcoming the issue of scale is the central tenant of the remote monitor-ing and management (RMM) market’s core value proposition.

Our objective at CentraStage has never been to match competitors fea-ture by feature, but rather to solve the challenge of delivering a core feature set across device numbers where the volumes ruled out our competitors.

We knew that to compete in the RMM market we would have to pro-vide a core feature set that matched or exceeded customer requirements, but our strategy was to build those fea-tures into an elastic architecture rather than to attempt to retrofit elasticity into our feature set ready to handle the growing internet of things. ■

CONTACTSMicroScope1st Floor, 3-4a Little Portland StreetLondon W1W 7JB

WEBwww.microscope.co.uk

GENERAL ENQUIRIESOffice Manager Monique Robinson 020 7186 1401

EDITORIALEditor Simon Quicke 020 7186 1412 squicke@techtarget.com Production editor Claire Cormack 020 7186 1417 ccormack@techtarget.comSenior sub-editor Jason Foster 020 7186 1420 jfoster@techtarget.comSenior sub-editor Craig Harris 020 7186 1416 charris@techtarget.com ADVERTISING Sales director Brent Boswell 07584 311889 bboswell@techtarget.comAccount manager Martin Upson 020 7186 1451 mupson@techtarget.com

EVENTSEvents manager Tom Walker 020 7186 1430 twalker@techtarget.com

MicroScope is produced monthly by TechTarget, First Floor, 3-4a Little Portland Street, London, W1W 7JB, UK. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any form of retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the copyright holder. All rights reserved, including translation into other languages.

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backchat

up 400% because it would go higher. Today it is almost worthless.

What gets you up in the morning?Usually my daughter’s cats, yowling to be fed at 6am. In reality, I enjoy the ongoing business development through working with partners across the whole of EMEA. The cultural, language and geographical variance makes every day different, interesting and fun.

Who helped you get to where you are today?It’s been a mixture of my family and my peers. Having three daughters comes with a price tag, so although I have to be away from home quite a lot, my family is very supportive of me working hard to provide a good lifestyle and all the fashion items they crave.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in IT today?Find a sector or product set that

has longevity. Technologies come and go, and become commoditised. Try to identify an area of IT that will always be required. IT security is a good example.

What is running on your smartphone?I’m a bit of a nerd, so I have just about every app I can find, from the Paris Metro route planner to a Bluetooth heart monitor for the gym. The good apps do help with my day-to-day job, such as Tripit, Lync, Skype and OneNote, but I am always on the lookout for other apps that do something I just can’t live without.

Tell us something most people do not know about youAfter leaving school, I went to catering college for two years and qualified as a chef. A year after that, I moved into hotel management, which is what got me into IT.

What do the next five years hold for the channel?In order to grow and develop global business, suppliers will become even more dependent on localised partners across multiple geographies. Although there will be consolidation of the partners and resellers into large

international companies, clients still want to see a local representative who understands their business, their language and their culture, at a country level.

What goal do you have to achieve before you die, and why?I have made a couple of resolutions: to learn Portuguese and to write a book. Obrigado!

What is the best book you have ever read?The Green Mile by Stephen King

And the worst film you’ve ever seen?With my arm twisted up my back by my daughter, I painfully sat through Wimbledon for 90 minutes.

What would be your Desert Island MP3s?Pretty varied: Genesis, Delirium, Queen, Amy Winehouse. I enjoy a wide variety of music.

What temptation can you not resist?A good Sunday roast in a traditional country pub with a nice pint of real ale – it’s what the gym was made for.

What was your first car and how does it compare with what you drive now?It was a Ford Cortina Mk3, and it had a great feature: you could easily lock your keys inside, and I did. It doesn’t really compare to what I drive today.

If you could be any animal for a day, what would you be and why?A cat. I’ve watched the pair we have sleep for 23 hours and then get fed when they demand it.

If you could take part in one event at an Olympic Games, what would you choose and why?Watching. Although I go to the gym, I’m not much of an athlete.

If you were facing awesome peril and impossible odds, which real or fictional person would you most want on your side and why?Jack Reacher seems to be able to take care of himself.

And finally, a grizzly bear and a silverback gorilla are getting ready for a no-holds-barred rumble. Who is your money on and why?A bear full of salmon, or a gorilla full of leaves? Hmmm, I think the bear would win it. ■“To grow and develop global business,

suppliers will become even more dependent on localised partners”

FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW

Tell us what you do for a livingI am responsible for creating and implementing the Lieberman Software partner programme in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), with a lot of help and support from my colleagues.

Why are you the right person for this job?I enjoy a good challenge and seeing a project like this grow from nothing to a successful programme really makes it worthwhile. I also convinced my vice-president that, having done this twice before, I was the man.

What is the best or worst business advice you have received, and from whom? The best advice was to move out of managing IT systems in hotels, and to start selling them back to that industry 25 years ago. The worst advice was from a financial adviser who told me not to sell some US stock that had gone

MicroScope puts its questions to Roy Duckles, EMEA channel director at Lieberman Software

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk JUNE 2014 | 14

› Click here to read more five-minute interviews online

Roy DucklesLieberman Software