Who is driving innovation in your business?

DANNY BRADBURY
PAGE 38
Modernising the
IT infrastructure
GARY FLOOD
PAGE 14
New ﬂexible working
rights for employees
PETER SMITH
PAGE 45
How IT product
buying has changed
PAGE 9
Who is
in your business?
DRIVING
INNOVATION

OUR INNOVATION
OUR COMMITMENT
OUR INTEGRITY
Probrand Group consists of three award-winning businesses specialising
in IT Products, IT Services and Software.
Whether you’re looking to save time and money buying IT products,
get more from your IT with services or transform the way you work
with innovative applications, we have a specialist dedicated to meeting
your needs. Let us help you thrive with relevant technology.
YOUR TECHNOLOGY PARTNER
THE VALUE IN EVERYTHING WE DO.
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T
he last 20 years have been characterised by
constant change, but there is one consistent, that
IT, commercial and procurement teams continue to
innovate and help organisations thrive. For that reason the
pace of technology enabled transformation, in all its forms,
is set to quicken well into the future and cement a key
watchword, growth.
We can see it already. Organisations are clearly taking quick
steps to maximise the upturn in the economy and rapid
adoption of new hardware, services and software are clearly
driving the ever-widening touch of technology in business.
Since 1992, we’ve grown a group of three award winning
specialist technology businesses, covering the three pillars
of IT provision – products, services, software – and listing
as some of EMEA’s fastest growing businesses. Each has
had to undergo its own transformation over time, so we
empathise with your pains.
More importantly, at the heart of our story is investment
in great people, putting value into relationships with our
innovation, commitment and integrity. That is, helping
customers thrive with relevant and innovative technology.
Traits that have seen us roll-out our software across 150
countries in 27 languages for one of the world’s biggest tech
brands.
Hard work and innovation do pay off and over the years that’s
been acknowledged. For example, His Royal Highness the
Duke of Kent presented our Queen’s Award for Innovation for
saving organisations millions of pounds buying IT.
What, apart from success, does this have to do with you and
an insightful Magazine?
Probrand Group fulfils many common and niche business
issues with technology and we recognise that there simply
isn’t enough support in the world, whatever the level of your
transformation challenge – from buying the right IT products
at the lowest price possible to globally unlocking efficiency
and productivity with game-changing software.
That’s why we’ve launched the Probrand Group Magazine,
bringing you credible articles written by leading tech
journalists on current topics around driving innovation and
transformation, mobility, supply chain and procurement,
security, cloud and infrastructure.
Now’s a great time to be an innovator in your organisation.
Welcome
Peter Robbins
Managing Director, Probrand Group
1
2 3 4
5
6
7
8
9 10
1. Apprentice Shareen Shafaq and The Lord and Lady Moyoress of Birmingham, 2. Skills & Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock
MP and Mercato’s Nicola Collins, 3. HRH the Duke of Kent presents Peter Robbins with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2011,
4. The Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2011, 5. Peter Robbins and Chris Griesbach meeting The Queen, 6. David Cameron speaking
at Civil Service Awards 2013, 7. Mercato Solutions winning the Technology Award at Made in the Midlands 2012, 8. Birmingham City
Council Leader Sir Albert Bore visits the Group, 9. Sir Albert Bore with school pupils, 10. Francis Maude MP meets leading tech SME

Contents
Driving
Innovation
Mobility
Supply Chain
Business
Transformation
Security
Cloud
Infrastructure
Procurement
News
Propositions
• Technology in brief
• Mind the skills gap
• Software platforms are putting
business teams in control
• Is innovation being driven
outside of the IT department?
• Discovery, alpha, beta, live: the
Government’s new digital look
• Law change forces firms to
consider flexible working
• The rise of mobile
• BYOD
• Following the IT product
market trends 2014
• Businesses still spending over
too much
• IT product margins: the
avoidable
• cost to business
• Just one fifth aware of price
volatility
• Knowing the supply chain
• The steps to business
transformation
• Insurers need to be careful
how they innovate
• Digital innovation helps Godiva
compete with bigger players
• Getting big value from big data
• Businesses of all sizes are
targets for cyber attack
• Firewall Survey
• Legacy firewalls increase the
risk of ransomware
• Securing access to the cloud is
imperative
• The cloud helps coffee republic
prepare for growth
• Films risk legal action by not
protecting cloud data
• Cloud, on-premise or hybrid?
• Server downtime: the number
one IT issue affecting firms
• Are you prepared for disaster?
• Modernising the IT
Infrastructure
• Freeing up resources to drive
innovation
• Short term approaches to
storage can prove costly
• The rise of mobile threatens
wireless wipeout
• Insufficient licensing leaves
SMBs vulnerable to legal action
• Counterfeit IT products
creating cause for concern
• Buying IT products - has it
really changed?
• See page 46 - 75
www.probrand.co.uk
Contact us:
0121 605 1000
enquiries@probrand.co.uk
Probrand Group Magazine
provides news, views, analysis
and information on pivotal subjects
relevant to IT, procurement and
business leaders looking to thrive
with technology.
Please get in touch and share your
views on any of the subjects tackled
or any you would like to read about.

Probrand Magazine 07
Digital data to
double every
two years
The volume of global
digital data will double
in size every two years
and will multiply 10-fold
between 2013 and 2020,
according to IDC.
The analyst warned that the amount
of storage capacity available will not
keep pace with the ‘digital universe’.
By 2020, the world will only have
enough storage capacity to hold 15%
of global digital data. Fortunately,
most of the world’s data is transient.
Half of CIOs
are struggling
to grasp digital
opportunities
More than half (51%)
of CIOs claimed they
cannot respond to digital
opportunities in a timely
manner, according to
Gartner.
Technology research in brief
The analyst’s CIO Agenda survey
found that 42% lacked the skills
necessary to enable digitisation and
70% believed they would need to
change their IT sourcing mix over the
next three years to take advantage of
the digital opportunities available.
Connectivity
issues
costing UK
business
£30bn
UK businesses are
missing out on £30bn
worth of potential growth
due to connectivity
issues, research has
claimed.
The Smarter Working Britain study,
carried out by the Centre for
Economic and Business Research
(Cebr) and O2, claimed slow uptake
of technological solutions had
resulted in productivity declining
since the onset of the recession. It
said, despite a proliferation of smart
technology in business, 80% of staff
still don’t have full access to key
business systems on these devices
which is stifling mobile working.
Half of firms
move beyond
Cloud pilot
stage
Almost half of businesses
have moved their Cloud
strategies beyond the
pilot phase, according to
a report by 451 Research.
The study found that 45% of
organisations have moved to the next
stage and almost a third (32%) have
included a formal cloud computing
plan within their overall IT and
business strategy. The research also
found that spending on private clouds
was happening both on and off
premise. It said 32% of all spending
on hosting was being dedicated to
private clouds, while 26% of on-
premise infrastructure spending
was also being dedicated to private
clouds.
Mobile traffic
to grow 11-fold
by 2018
As mobile device use
increases the data
generated by these tools,
traffic is forecast to grow
11-fold, between 2013 and
2018, according to Cisco.
The networking company claims
there will be 10 billion mobile devices
connected to the Internet by the end
of this period – a figure 40% greater
than the world’s projected population.
The study said the traffic generated
by mobile devices will grow three
times faster than fixed connections,
with the majority of this being
offloaded on to WiFi networks.
News

Driving Innovation
08 Probrand Magazine
T
he Council of Professors and
Heads of Computing predicts
the UK will need 15% more IT
professionals by 2022. Despite this, the
number of students looking for jobs in
the sector has fallen by 50% in the last
decade. Demand is outstripping supply
and we are facing a skills shortage.
The government has started to take
steps to address this problem. It is
introducing a new Computing curriculum
this September which will see children
learning how to code as early as Year
1 - but this still leaves a generation gap.
D
igital technology is transforming
businesses by helping people to
work smarter, leaner and faster.
The case for digital innovation is clear.
Research in the insurance industry,
conducted on behalf of Mercato
Solutions, found companies are wasting
an average of 3,000 man hours per year
due to legacy processes and poorly
implemented IT. If organisations want
to be progressive they need systems in
place that enable more flexibility, agility
and efficiency.
Ideally, business teams would be able to
develop their own bespoke applications
to automate processes and use data
better. The reality is bespoke development
can often involve long lead times,
considerable cost and risk. There have
been some very high profile examples
of large scale projects which have been
retired without delivering any benefits.
One notable example was the shelving of
Mind the skills gap
Furthermore, a survey by MyKindaCrowd
has revealed that 74% of ICT teachers do
not believe they have the skills to teach
computer science.
It’s essential that we provide teachers with
the necessary support to deliver lessons
that inspire young people – whether this
is via the government, the industry itself,
or a combination of the two. Moreover,
we must ensure that what is being taught
is applicable in the real world in order to
guarantee that children are equipped with
the right tools to enter the workforce.
We already know that apprenticeships are
a fantastic way to bridge the gap between
education and the workplace. Why then
can’t we form a similar business model
between the IT industry and educators?
Developing such a scheme can surely
benefit all involved.
Coding is an extremely skilled occupation
that is constantly evolving but we must
realise a long-term plan that brings
multiple parties together to make it
happen.
Neil Tonkin is Head of Development
at Mercato Solutions
Neil Tonkin examines how the IT
industry can work with educators
to help bridge the growing IT skills
gap in our economy
74%
Software platforms are putting
business teams in control
the UK’s £12bn national Electronic Care
Records system, which was described
by MPs as one of the ‘worst and most
expensive contracting fiascos’ ever.
As a result progressive, but risk averse,
organisations are looking to drive greater
efficiency, productivity and growth through
software platforms. These software
platforms allow for the rapid creation of
intelligent business applications without a
single line of code needing to be written.
Every organisation has processes
where improvements can be made and
these platform-based applications can
automate complex and simple tasks
alike - from surveys, claims processing
and compliance applications to tech
support, configurators and even artificial
intelligence.
With business teams able to take control
of projects away from IT in this way, many
think an internal tussle could break out as
a result. In fact, modern IT departments
are under such pressure with day-to-day
support and network optimisation that the
prospect of giving the business a platform
it can self-manage is seen as a welcome
addition that relieves pressure.
Equally, the prospect of flexible costs and
deployment are welcomed by IT and
finance departments alike.
Peter Robbins is Managing Director
of Probrand Group
These software
platforms allow for
the rapid creation of
intelligent business
applications without
a single line of code
needing to be written
by Peter Robbins
of ICT teachers do not
believe they have the skills
to teach computer science

K
ing Canute would have made
a great IT director. The Anglo-
Saxon ruler, father of King Harold,
is said to have set his throne on the shore
and tried to turn back the incoming tide.
Legend says the whole thing was an act,
planned by Canute to demonstrate a
simple fact to his courtiers: some things
are bigger and more powerful than kings,
and can’t be stopped.
Modern IT departments have a lot in
common with Canute. Until now, they
have been the rulers of technology, firmly
in control of the software and devices that
run on their networks. They were seen as
the masters of innovation.
Now, they’re facing a fast moving current
that won’t be stopped. It's sweeping
away the old, and ushering in new ways
of working. Business users, from the
postroom to the boardroom, are using IT
on their own terms - and it’s creating a
tide of innovation.
Take software development as an
example. For over half a century,
companies have been working to
make software development easy for
Is innovation being driven
outside of the IT department?
by Danny Bradbury
people with no technical background
in IT training. Over the decades it led
to a category of software called rapid
application development (RAD), designed
to allow business users to create their
own applications - without writing lengthy,
complex lines of code.
Unfortunately, enabling business users
to write their own code can make IT
departments uncomfortable and a little
territorial, says Peter Robbins, managing
director of Probrand Group.
“It’s like turkeys at Christmas time,” he
quips. “It isn’t that they’re deliberately
obstructive. But we’re opening up their
skills base to a lot more people, and they
don’t like that,” Robbins says.
TIME FOR CHANGE
Clive Longbottom, founder of IT advisory
firm Quocirca, argues that it may be
scary for IT departments but things are
changing.
“Everything has to be presented to the
business in terms of the three variables
that they care about; how does the
change to technology affect the business’
overall costs, its overall risk and how does
it add value to the business?” he says.
IT departments may have taken months
to develop applications before, but in a
new world where users can develop their
own software without typing a line of
code, that simply won’t fly.
To that end, the IT department must
embrace faster ways of developing
applications as they are not going away,
Robbins says.
“It makes sense to adopt processes and
platforms that give you the outcomes you
need; something that can achieve the
same results, but faster and cheaper.”
IT professionals can find themselves
swept along by this business focus
whether they like it or not, because
it’s part of a broader cultural change.
In addition to developing their own
applications internally, many business
departments are also turning to third-
party suppliers who deliver cloud-
based applications from outside
the organisation.
“It makes sense to
adopt processes and
platforms that give you
the outcomes you need;
something that can
achieve the same results,
but faster and cheaper.”

Driving Innovation
Johnathan Mitchener describes another
perceived threat: the onslaught of
consumer devices. Business users want
their own smartphones and tablets, on
which to access these new, seductive
applications.
Mitchener is the lead technologist at the
Technology Strategy Board, a public body
that works with businesses to develop
best practices in technology innovation.
He has spent years studying technology
futurism, and is highly tuned to emerging
trends in this fast moving space.
The bottom line for IT departments? Don't
fight it, says Mitchener.
“What you need is a realisation that
very few companies could keep up with
and roll out the innovation in devices,
applications and software that individuals
can now do as consumers in a corporate
environment,” he says.
A STRATEGIC ROLE FOR IT
Instead of trying to turn back the tide, IT
can define a more strategic role for itself in
the organisation, concentrating on finding
new and innovative technologies that can
contribute positively to the bottom line.
Antony Walker, managing director of
techUK, says that IT’s interests must
be completely aligned with those of the
business. Formerly known as Intellect,
techUK is a UK trade association for the
technology industry.
“It’s moving from a world where the IT
department is an enabler, to the point
where IT is really helping to drive and
shape the future of the business,” Walker
says.
And yet some IT departments,
inexperienced in coping with a change
in company culture, may find it difficult
to drive transformation when they feel
as though they are losing control of key
IT assets. Accepting this change as
a positive thing, rather than a loss of
control, is critical to the IT department’s
success as companies recraft those
relationships.
“It’s moving from a
world where the IT
department is an
enabler, to the point
where IT is really helping
to drive and shape the
future of the business.”
It starts with the skills inside the IT
department, points out Adam Thilthorpe,
director of professionalism for BCS, the
chartered institute for IT in the UK. Every
technological advance creates a need for
different and more diverse skills, and IT is
no exception.
“Demand for IT skills today is based
more on the ability to apply and exploit
technology in the business than on pure
technical implementation,” he says. He
sees companies relying more on blended
teams with different talents. “They are
managing average workload/workforce
levels in IT more closely, and leveraging
external subject matter experts.”
Those subject matter experts can be
long-standing non-technical members
of staff, who understand the nuances
of a business's process. To date, that
information has been locked up inside
their heads, and difficult to tap. But
by giving them a hand in application
development, the IT department can
perform a valuable service to the rest of
the organisation.
FACILITATORS OF
INNOVATION
What might that look like in practice?
Mitchener describes a scenario in which
the IT department acts as a central
clearing house – or even a marketplace
– for innovation that springs directly from
business departments. "It is not unusual
now for some organisations to have their
own app stores, and the business unit to
contribute to that," he argues.
Developing applications is one thing
but it still takes technical expertise to
validate what has been written, and then
distribute effectively to others around
the organisation who might be able to
benefit. IT could handle version control
and updates, introduce standards for
effective software development and
enable different departments’ applications
to work seamlessly with each other.
In addition to polishing and packaging
technology from business units, there
Adam Thilthorpe,
Director of
Professionalism
for BCS

“The business is still
not including IT at
the beginning of the
business decision
making process, which
leads to technology
being decided upon
in a rush and so being
suboptimal.”
there is also an opportunity to identify
internal applications that could be
marketed externally to others in an
industry, Mitchener says.
Developments like these can help make
the relationship between IT and the
business units less adversarial, and more
cooperative, he adds. "I wouldn’t say
it’s a support role; it's more a question
of involvement, and partnership," says
Mitchener. “The users develop what they
want, and the IT department helps finish
it off."
A WIN-WIN
These more mature relationships work
because instead of resenting each other
and hogging their own territory, both sides
get something out of the deal. It makes
requirements analysis far easier. Capturing
information about business processes in
lengthy Word documents is a notoriously
gruelling task for IT departments, who
in many cases may not know which
questions to ask.
Enabling non-technical staff well versed
in the business process to design their
own applications collapses the layers
between the users and the developers.
In fact, as Robbins points out: “These
products don’t need developers; they
need implementers.”
It also benefits the business, by giving
it more control, Robbins points out.
Traditionally, a business department may
have to stand by as IT development costs
spun out of control. By the time it realised
that something was wrong, it may already
have spent several months and significant
financial resources on the project. Putting
development in the hands of non-
technical users closer to the business
side introduces more visibility.
"Because you're going back to people
with developments swiftly, it speeds up
the process, enabling you to control the
costs more," he points out. "This lets
you make judgement calls on projects
early on, and that's crucial to businesses
generally."
MEETING HALFWAY
For all of this to work, IT departments
must give up their own preconceptions
about how technology is provided within
a company. But business departments
must also rethink the relationship in some
cases, warns Longbottom.
“The business is still not including
IT at the beginning of the business
decision making process, which leads to
technology being decided upon in a rush
and so being suboptimal,” he says.
Over the past few years IT departments
and business units have become wary
of each other and it takes two to break
down a wall. Involving IT early on in the
discussion stage, rather than treating
it as a potential barrier, could provide
businesses with unique strategic insights
into new projects.
Technology experts can advise on a
variety of topics, from how datasets can
be analysed to best determine target
audiences for applications, through to
how social networks could be used
intelligently to drive an initial campaign
and everything in between.
“The power of data is well understood
among business leaders, but that doesn’t
mean that other parts of the business will
have that knowledge in how to make it a
reality,” points out techUK’s Walker.
For that kind of relationship to develop,
both sides need to be constructive,
forward thinking - and willing to get their
feet wet. Is your organisation up to the
challenge?
Danny Bradbury is an award winning
freelance technology journalist

F
rom this summer, people
registering to vote or update their
electoral register details have been
able to do so online in just three minutes
- thanks to a new national system.
The website, gov.uk/register-to-vote,
now connects to every local authority’s
electoral register and cross checks
identities against the DWP’s national
insurance database.
Greg Clark, junior Cabinet Office minister,
said the introduction of this online
registration will strike a blow against
electoral fraud.
In its scale and ambition, however, the
electoral registration project initially had
all the hallmarks of a classic government
IT disaster waiting to happen. It had
to meet a national policy deadline
(moving 46 million voters to individual
registration), while cutting across tiers of
government and pioneering new identity
matching procedures. In the past, this
would have been the cue for delays and
overspending.
The system’s developers at the
Government Digital Service say the
success of the project is thanks to a new
agile approach to development, which
removed the inflexibility of previous ‘big
bang’ government IT systems.
The online electoral registration is one of
25 projects pioneering a new approach
for developers of ‘digital by default’ public
services, as set out in the Government
Service Design Manual. This approach is
breaking down projects in to four phases,
Discover, Alpha, Beta, Live (DABL).
Discovery involves finding out what users
need, what to measure and what the
constraints are.
Alpha is the stage of building a prototype
and testing it with users.
Discovery, alpha, beta, live:
the government’s new digital look
by Michael Cross
Beta is scaling up and going public -
while retaining the ability for continuous
improvement.
Live is where the system becomes
available to all users.
This DABL approach is attracting a lot
of attention. The big question, however,
is whether it can be applied to the
really large scale projects endemic to
government – and especially to the UK
government.
Chris Haynes, a veteran of e-government
projects in local and central government,
is cautiously optimistic. Although he
warns of the dangers of ‘messianic zeal’,
he says DABL offers a way out of a major
problem with public sector IT – the lack of
solid technical skills.
He said: “Over the past 15 years the
government has denuded itself of IT
skills and left itself vulnerable. A benefit
of the DABL approach is to re-introduce
expertise at a low level.
“New approaches allow for rapid
application development, which
compresses timeframes and risk. If you
have the ability to prototype you’re 90%
of the way to getting customer support.
“The prototype stage is also where to
decide which tehnical platform the end
system will use.”
He adds: “I’m 65% certain that the
outcome will be really positive in the long
run. You need to deal with the technical
vacuum in government.”
Over the next year, as the remainder of
the ‘digital by default’ projects work their
way through the DABL stages, the new
philosophy will be put to the test. With the
UK still lagging in European e-government
benchmarks, there is definite room
for this improvement.
Michael Cross is a technology
journalist, formerly with the Guardian
and the Independent
Driving Innovation

Mobility
F
ollowing a change of law in July
2014, anyone who has been
working for an employer for
more than six months is now legally
empowered to ask if they can work
flexibly.
Employers might be used to this kind of
request from staff who are either parents
of young children or who have to care
for others. But now the government
has decided that everyone, even those
with no dependents, can put a "flexibility
request" on their manager’s desk at
least once a year and employers will be
expected to respond.
The extension of flexible working
legislation has raised fears, in some
quarters, that there will be a flood of
requests that bosses will be hard-pressed
to meet - especially within mid-range or
smaller companies.
Employers may be reassured to know
that these changes provide no cast-iron
guarantee that all requests will need to be
accommodated. “Legally, employers have
to consider the request but can reject it at
any time on business grounds,” points out
Tina Wisener, partner at London-based
employment solicitors Doyle Clayton. But
employers still need to tread carefully
to ensure they are following the correct
procedure around this, she adds.
Law change forces firms
to consider flexible working
With the government extending the scope of who can
ask to work from home or non 9-5 hours, Gary Flood
asks how employers can best react to this change of law.
by Gary Flood
“When a member of staff asks for flexible
working, the employer must consider
the request in a reasonable manner,” she
warns. Employers must also consider the
plea carefully - balancing the benefits for
the employee and the business against
any adverse impact for the business.
In reality, an employer can refuse a bid
on a number of grounds, such as cost to
the business or the impact on their ability
to meet client demand, according to
employment law expert Dan Peyton from
law firm McGuireWoods.
So long as the request is turned down on
reasonable grounds, employers should
be OK. But if they do not, they need to
be aware that they could face legal action
on grounds which could include disability
or indirect sex discrimination - among
other possibilities. If it goes to tribunal,
employers may also be liable to pay out
thousands.
So while there is no gun being held to
employers’ heads, they do need to tread
carefully around this issue. Meanwhile,
there is also the factor that in today’s
interconnected world technological
advances mean that, on paper at least, a
staffer should be able to work wherever
they want.
“Modern technology is likely to have the
most impact on decisions on requests
“When a member of staff
asks for flexible working,
the employer must
consider the request in a
reasonable manner.”

to work from home, given the ease with
which employees may now access work
IT systems remotely,” notes Peyton. “It
may be more difficult for an employer
reasonably to assert that such a request
contravenes one of the statutory grounds
for refusal.”
Good Business
Sense?
The reality is that employers need to be
up to speed with what technology can
do to support flexible working. After all,
the whole idea of ‘telecommuting’ has
been around for years, although, it’s only
in the past few years - since the growth
of the World Wide Web and 3 and now
4G Internet broadband - that it’s become
more than a slogan.
Some mid-range companies do claim,
however, that such advances mean that
enabling flexible working is a doddle. One
such is Red Setter, a Brighton-based
business development consultancy. “To
attract and retain the very best people, we
offer significant flexibility,” says its director,
Claire Blyth.
“We’ve never seen flexibility as something
that needed to be imposed by regulation;
for us, it is simple business sense if
someone wants to come in 30 minutes
late so they can do the school run or work
from home a couple of days a month
because the trains are disrupted. In fact,
our longest-serving member of staff now
works from home full-time.”
To support such structures, Blyth says
she and her fellow managers have had to
ensure the right technology is set up to
make it possible. But so positive has the
experience been she says, “I would urge
other SMEs to see flexible working as an
opportunity to really engage and energise
your workforce.”
So the bottom line seems to be that
employers need to get ready for flexible
working approaches, which could now
come from anyone in the firm. Employers
need to spend some time thinking about
their response to these requests and what
technology will effectively support such
ways of working.
The price involved in enabling flexible
working could well be worth it, however.
As Red Setter’s Blyth puts it, “Senior
professionals are looking for a job which
uses the skills and knowledge they have
gained over many years in an industry
they love - but which doesn’t require them
to work 14 hour days, six days a week.
They want a job which fits around
their lives.”
“We’ve never seen
flexibility as something
that needed to be
imposed by regulation;
for us, it is simple
business sense.”Dan Peyton,
McGuireWoods
Tina Wisener,
Doyle Clayton
Claire Blyth,
Red Setter
Gary Flood is a freelance
technology journalist

Mobility
riseriseThe of mobile
rise
A
s organisations look to enable flexible working and increased
collaboration, the deployment of mobile technology has
become a top priority in business. Companies have sought
to gain these advantages as quickly as possible and in so doing have
been allowing, and in many cases encouraging, employees to use
their own mobile devices for work purposes.
Providing employees with access to corporate networks via mobile
devices has not been without its challenges, however. Concerns
around the increase in mobile cybercrime and the leaking of sensitive
data, which can be stored on these devices, has led to security
becoming a priority for businesses.
Flexible working
“Companies are realising that
by enabling employees to
work from a location of their
choice using their preferred
technology, they are taking
one of the single most
important steps in motivating
business productivity”
- Adriana Karaboutis, CIO of Dell
“Consumerisation of
IT cannot be ignored.
Providing employees
with a simple secure
way to access the
company network is
a key factor which will
enable employers
to embrace mobile
working and BYOD.”
- Bob Tarzey, service director
at industry analyst Quocirca
%37 of SMB
employees
were remote
workers in 2013
- Symantec

of companies are allowing,
accommodating and encouraging
the use of personally owned devices
– Vanson Bourne
of UK adults now use a
personal smartphone, laptop
or tablet for work purposes
– YouGov
BYOD
B
ring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an approach that allows employees and
partners to utilise personally selected and purchased devices, such as
smartphones, tablets and laptops, for work purposes
"What happens if you buy a device for an employee
and they leave the job a month later? How are you going to settle up? Better to
keep it simple. The employee owns the device, and the company helps to cover
usage costs” - David Willis, vice president at Gartner
UK office workers are
storing, sharing and
accessing corporate
data on personal devices
- Ipsos MORI
9 in 10
“Companies need to wake
up and realise they’re facing
a massive security issue and
risk having their intellectual
property walk out of the door
with people.”
- Alastair Mitchell, CEO of Huddle
of tablets and smart
phones connecting
to company networks
are insecure
- Ponemon
of mobile users
have experienced
mobile cybercrime
in past 12 months
- Norton
Mobile security
84%
38%
“Virtualisation bridges the
gap between the network
and BYOD by allowing users
to connect from anywhere,
on any device. Furthermore,
BYOD highlights the
things that thin clients and
virtualisation do best, like
securing corporate and
customer data.”
- Tom Flynn, HP chief technologist
of large corporations have
implemented VDi due to BYOD
- Decisive Anlaytics
of firms hit by a security breach
introduced endpoint security, such as two
step authentication, to provide protection
when devices access networks remotely
- Ponemon
of firms hit with security issues
implemented encryption solutions,
such as virtual private networks,
to protect information in transit
- Ponemon
Enabling mobile
70% 80%75%

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T
he overall IT product market is
expected to grow slowly - by
around 1% each quarter during
2014 - as the tablet market levels out
and growth comes from the emerging
areas in desktop computing, storage and
networking.
Tablets
The tablet market declined in value
(-5.4%) in the first quarter of 2014, even
though the volume of sales increased 4%
year on year. This was the first decline on
record for tablets and signified that the
market is now maturing.
The decline has been brought about
primarily by a swing towards smaller and
cheaper 7inch devices. This market’s
ongoing transformation is likely to see a
further drop in the average selling price.
The B2B market (10% of sales in Q1
2014) is, however, expected to remain
static for the rest of the year. The joint
issues of security, productivity and the
fact that working on tablets is a large step
change for workers will prevent B2B sales
from taking off as retail sales have done.
Desktops
The traditional desktop market is
experiencing a renaissance in 2014, due
to the popularity of consumer focused
products. Retail sales were up 10.8% in
volume and 20.9% in value in Q1.
The growth is occurring in high end tower
computers and all-in-one devices. This
uptick in demand is being driven by PC
gaming and is expected to continue as
the system requirements for new games
Following the IT product market trends 2014
Oscar Diamond of leading
market research company
GfK takes a look at the IT
product market to highlight
current trends and forecast
where things are likely to
go next.
increases. B2B desktop sales, however,
remained flat in Q1.
Storage
The falling price of hard drives combined
with a slow uptake of higher capacity
products and increased competition from
cloud storage has left the storage market
struggling this year. The market is down
9.3% in value, despite being up 1% in
volume.
Growth can, however, be found in the
SSD market (up 42.4% in value in Q1).
With the price of higher capacity SSD
drives falling and the install base still far
away from saturation, we can expect to
see growth continue at between 30% and
40% in Q3 and Q4.
Network Attached Storage (NAS) also
saw volume growth of 27.1% and value
growth of 6.5% in Q1. We would expect
strong volume growth for this sector to
continue but with muted value growth as
prices fall.
Networking
The theme of networking is now more
about the widening of access rather
than increasing network speed. In B2B
enterprise, switches and switch modules
are driving growth. In retail, growth is
coming from powerlines and repeaters.
Traditional routers, however, continue to
struggle due to a very slow adoption of
the new WiFi standard, AC, which has
not been helped by a lack of support from
leading consumer devices.
The market, which has been improving
steadily for the last four quarters,
experienced value growth of 5.6% in
Q1 2014.
by Oscar Diamond
Supply Chain
Where IT growth will come from in 2014

Supply Chain
I
f you read Government reports on
recent public sector spending it gives
the impression things are finally being
brought under control. The Cabinet Office
has released a barrage of figures claiming
‘unprecedented’ savings in everything
from better management of commercial
relationships (£1.8bn over four years) to
closing unnecessary websites (£60m last
year alone). But has the UK public sector
really got to grips with its IT spending?
The evidence suggests not. Some public
sector organisations have been shown
to be falling short by not negotiating
the best possible deals with their
suppliers. Benchmarking research,
carried out by KnowledgeBus, found
some organisations have paid nearly
seven times the recommended margin
for products supplied under contracts.
Such overpayments make it harder to
demonstrate returns on investment in IT
projects. And with public spending under
ever-growing scrutiny, these purchases
have the potential to
cause severe political
embarrassment.
It is not just the public
sector struggling with
the margins being
paid to suppliers. The
study, which included
200 procurement/
ICT managers (with
annual budgets over
£50,000), found most
UK organisations are
Technology journalist Michael Cross looks at how
organisations are gaining competitive advantage by
examining supply chain information.
POWER
by Michael Cross
routinely paying above the best practice
industry margin of 3%, as defined by the
Society of IT Management (Socitm).
In fact, the public sector did on average
perform better than a number of
other sectors, such as banking (39%
average margin). There were, however,
some alarming exceptions. One NHS
organisation paid an astonishing 673%
margin, while a university paid 426% and
a local authority 327%.
Yet many, if not all, of these over-
payments are avoidable if organisations
have a clear view of the stock and
price levels in the market. Any
organisation without visibility in these
areas is negotiating deals with a clear
disadvantage – especially when a fifth of
products in the UK IT market can change
price overnight.
There is a whole plethora of factors
impacting on those price levels, such
as currency fluctuations, raw materials
shortages and even natural disasters.
For example, when an earthquake and
tsunami hit northern Japan in March
2011, the price of hard disk drives
quadrupled. The introduction of around
300 new products into the IT market each
day is also impacting the price of their
predecessors on a constant basis.
Managers are beginning to overcome
these complications, however, by taking
advantage of a new generation of
benchmarking software that is providing
transparency around the price and stock
levels in the market.
Knowledge is
when buying IT

This was something we had not have
realised previously.”
Home Group has now capped
commercial agreements with suppliers
limiting the mark-ups possible. This is all
policed using benchmarking software.
Davidson claims this approach has paid
rapid dividends. “Our cost avoidance
figures show that Home Group saved
£50,000 over six months as a result and
we are likely to save more than £80,000
over the course of the year.”
The benefits of price visibility do not just
rest with an ability to beat resellers down
on price, however. The insights delivered
by benchmarking also allow organisations
to spot seasonal price changes.
By observing these trends South
Staffordshire has developed a
procurement strategy which has seen it
buying products at specific times in the
year to deliver cost savings.
Smith added: “Powerful big data
functionality allows us to view historical
stock and pricing levels to spot and
analyse trends. We have set alerts
to provide early warnings on any
fluctuations, which can be dramatic.
These insights have led us to both delay
and bring forward purchases.”
When buyers are able to identify the
potential for these kinds of savings
from supply chain information, it
appears knowledge really is power.
South Staffordshire College, a further
education college spread over four
sites, is one organisation which has
been demonstrating the potential of this
technology. With an annual turnover of
£30 million, more than 20,000 students
and 850 staff, it sees itself as a pace-
setter in a highly competitive environment.
Jamie Smith, director for strategy and
infrastructure, said: “The chief executive
wants us to be in the vanguard of
development across all areas - the learner
experience, the campus buildings and this
also includes procurement.”
In the current spending climate, this
is a tall order. “If you want to be this
progressive when budgets are contracting
you need to be innovative as there is
pressure to deliver the best possible
return on every pound,” says Smith.
To achieve this return with its IT
spending, South Staffordshire deployed
benchmarking tool KnowledgeBus and
the information delivered an immediate
payback, Smith says. “With the
information provided, we have been able
to negotiate supplier margins down from
an average of 30.9% to less than the best
practice 3%.
“For example, we recently required seven
laptops, which would cost about £900
each from major suppliers. We bought
them for £420 each and made a saving of
almost £2,000 on that purchase alone.”
He added: “This has translated into more
or better IT for an improved learning
environment.”
Another organisation taking advantage of
benchmarking to achieve big savings is
the Home Group, one of the UK’s largest
providers of social housing. The social
enterprise and charity has a turnover of
more than £300 million and works with
more than 200 local authorities nationally
to house some 120,000 people a year.
Although Home Group was able to
negotiate low margins on its main
framework supplies contracts, it has
previously had difficulty getting value for
money from ad-hoc purchases. These
were costing on average 21% more
– and up to 350% more for individual
purchases, says Laura Davidson, IS
supplier relationship manager. “This had
to change.”
By deploying KnowledgeBus, the
procurement team has been able to
get a grip of this situation. Davidson
said: “We unearthed supplier sales
tactics such as inflating margins for high
volume, low value consumables whilst
appearing to provide competitive pricing
on low volume, high value equipment.
For example, we found mark-ups of
approximately 60% on laptop bags but
minimal mark-ups on laptops.
“On smaller items, we have seen suppliers
asking for mark-ups in excess of 100%.

Supply Chain
W
ith prices so volatile, IT
managers and procurement
professionals face a huge
challenge trying to achieve best value
when purchasing IT equipment.
If prices never altered it would be easy to
keep track of what a fair price should be
and negotiate with resellers accordingly.
In reality, a whole host of factors affect the
supply and demand for products which
impacts the price on a daily basis.
Without knowing the current trade price,
however, it is difficult for IT buyers to
know the mark-ups being achieved by
resellers – and they can be substantial.
Mercato’s recent IT Product Margins
study found that UK organisations were
routinely paying above the best practice
industry margin of 3%, as defined by the
Society of IT Managers. In one incident an
organisation within the NHS was found to
have paid an astounding margin of 673%
on a single purchase.
While the results showed that some
sectors have reduced the average
margins paid over the previous 12 months
- councils saw an average of 29% drop
to 11% last year – other sectors are
IT product margins: the
avoidable cost to business
getting worse. Banks were shown to have
paid average margins of 39% in 2013,
compared to 19% in 2012.
Al Nagar, Mercato head of benchmarking,
said: “Organisations are overspending on
their IT and this is hitting bottom lines at
a time when many are fighting to become
more efficient. Negotiating the best price
on every purchase is a necessity but a
volatile market makes this difficult. At
the core of this issue is that buyers rarely
manage to find and use validated trade
prices as a ‘bartering’ tool with suppliers.
“IT suppliers capitalise on the fact
that most organisations can’t keep
track of supply chain stock levels, new
product launches or seasonal trends
that contribute to changing prices. For
genuine best value, buyers need to
police and benchmark purchases.”

Al Nagar, head of benchmarking at
Mercato Solutions, said: “Benchmarking
applications can help buyers beat the
system by tracking thousands of products
every day as well as monitoring historical
trends and alerting IT buyers of
exactly the right time to buy.”
L
ess than a fifth of UK buyers are
aware of the level of price volatility
in the IT market, a study has found.
The research, based on over 150,000
items, found as much as a fifth of
products can change price within a 24
hour period – some by as much as 67%.
The study also revealed that over the
course of a quarter just 16% of products
maintained their value.
If buyers have agreements stipulating the
margins suppliers can charge on top of
the channel price, then understanding
this price volatility is crucial. A study
with 1,000 IT purchasing managers by
Mercato Solutions has revealed, however,
that 81% were unaware of the scale and
frequency of these price changes.
Just one ﬁfth aware
of price volatility
In total there were nearly one million
individual price changes throughout the
quarter under review. Analysis of one
single model of Voice over IP phone
showed it changed price 50 times in this
three month period.
Price changes were also discovered to
be going both up and down. The study
identified one entry level storage solution
which experienced a drop at the start of
month one and an increase of £3,000 at
the end of the second month.
The highest variance saw a product price
increase by 66.7% and the greatest price
drop was 28.6%. On larger items these
changes can have a significant impact on
cost. When a Quantum storage product’s
price went down by 5%, the cost
dropped by over £20,000.
U
nderstanding the supply chain
and knowing what vendors are
likely to do next can be a big
advantage when buying new IT products.
When you take a look at the current
computing device market, with Microsoft’s
new operating system and touch
screens, it is hugely unstable – there
is a huge variety of notebooks, tablets
and ultrabooks to consider. In these
circumstances it can be helpful to know
that vendors plan their product line-up
about a year ahead of its arrival with
resellers. With the right insight, therefore,
it’s possible to predict what is coming
next.
If you consider the development of a
notebook, there are many things a vendor
needs to consider before manufacture.
They will need to do their research into
what customers require and what level
of demand there is likely to be for each
product. They will also have to take on
board what Microsoft and Intel are doing
and negotiate with component suppliers
Knowing the supply chain
before they can get to work. This all takes
time and once built it can still take 8-10
weeks to ship to Europe if transported by
boat.
By having knowledge of where vendors
are going, you’ll know what stock is likely
to be about months ahead. It may also be
that certain products may only be around
for 3 to 6 months. At times suppliers will
build one batch at a low price to affect the
market and when that stock is gone it’s
gone. If buyers want consistency of image
or continuity of specification they need to
look at established products, normally the
business or corporate ranges.
Many people these days will use Google
to do their own research but talking to
someone who can explain where the
vendor is going with its products, and
its proposition, can be a big advantage.
Impartial advice can also be crucial in
ensuring you get the right product, which
is fit for purpose, and that you are not
press ganged into buying products which
companies are simply trying to shift
because they have a load of stock
filing up the warehouse.
by Gary Price, Product
and Category Manager
with Probrand Group
There were nearly one
million individual price
changes throughout
the quarter
Al Nagar, Mercato
Head of Benchmarking

S
ome might think business
transformation involves handing
a seemingly unending flow of
budget resources to a burgeoning team of
external consultants for nebulous results,
and past experience of business process
engineering specialists might justify this
thinking, but it isn’t necessarily right.
External specialists might be engaged,
but the appetite for change must come
from within. To be credible, real business
transformation must enable a tangible,
non-incremental jump in business
capabilities, so that an entire operation is
working smarter - stretching imaginations,
not resources.
THE STEPS TO
DELIVERING BUSINESS
TRANSFORMATION:
Leadership
Nothing will reach a successful
conclusion without focus, clarity and
the conviction that change is not only
necessary, but worth doing right.
There must be authority, but this alone
is not sufficient, nor is the cloak of
management. Successfully transforming
part of a business requires management
commitment, dedication and drive.
Business process
Existing ones need to be well understood
and those post transformation must
be properly codified and structured to
match the identified business needs and
not depend on historical legacy. Silos
Transformationbased on departmental fiefdoms or past
IT solutions should not determine the
direction or the outcome.
Business alignment
It is critical that all resources committed to
business transformation are aligned with
business needs. Change for its own sake
is not the intention. Requirements should
be based on business strategy and goals,
with an iterative path towards completion.
Resources need to be committed to
initiate and implement each stage, then
repeated until the desired final outcome is
achieved.
Strategic IT
Many short term ‘quick fix’ IT investments
that will cause greater headaches and
expense over time. The effective time
window of short term fixes rapidly
closes as most companies find their
legacy IT riddled with complexity
and interdependencies. Business
transformation requires architecting for
flexibility with an efficient and virtualised
core that is capable of handling an
increasingly diverse and mobile range of
devices at the edge.
Vision, not hype
Innovative technologies can support
business transformation, but they must be
evaluated on impact to the business and
not market ‘buzz’. A pertinent example
is ‘big data’. It might seem a great idea
to capture anything and everything, but
strategies are better set on business
goals not storage capacities - good,
relevant and rapidly applicable data
will be more useful than accumulating
terabytes of junk.
Demonstrable success
Clear assessment of worthwhile return
at the end of a transformation cycle is
vital, but should always be in meaningful
and measurable terms. For some this will
be explicitly financial, but consequential
impact can create broader and synergistic
values to the organisation. These must
still be measured and evaluated, but
against a template of business impact,
which can then be traced back to IT
decisions, so as to demonstrate the
business value of action taken.
Finally it is important to remember that not
all aspects of business transformation will
occur at the same rate. While strategies
can be readily defined and systems
rapidly implemented, other aspects of
change can be much slower. People,
organisational culture and working
practices take time, support and effort to
adapt to radically different processes.
The commitment to initiate change needs
to be matched with a commitment to
follow through, and to recognise that it will
be required again. It might seem trite to
say that ‘the only constant is change’, but
it is true. However, it is always better to be
initiating, rather than reacting to, change.
Quocirca carries out research and
analysis on behalf of IT decision
makers across Europe
By Rob Bamforth,
Principal Analyst
at Quocirca
to business
the steps
Business Transformation

Learn More
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The IT Perspective
“Our resources are scarce. We’ve
been able to let the business
innovate and deliver whilst
retaining control and governance.
It’s relieved the pressure on our
development teams and when
needed, we simply design,
build and deploy applications
rapidly, freeing time to focus
on the things we really
need to.”
The Business Perspective
“It couldn’t be simpler, unprecedented
ROI, low TCO and results in days.
We created line of business
applications that automated processes
quicker and at less cost. We’ve
connected and extended existing
systems and data too.”
4264/11072014/NH
@KnowledgeKube

Business Transformation
T
he insurance sector is often
portrayed as a somewhat
conservative and traditional
industry - operating with long established
business practices and processes.
However, as time moves on, new
business models emerge and legacy
processes become inefficient.
Research released by analyst firm
Quocirca, in conjunction with insurance
trading platform KnowledgeKube,
revealed that insurance firms are on
average wasting up to 3,000 man hours
per annum due to inflexible systems and
processes.
The inflexibility of these processes is
also preventing insurers from taking full
advantage of new digital sales channels,
stifling revenue growth. Software that
Insurers need to be careful
how they innovate
enables users to quickly and easily
perform the tasks they require without the
need for abundant technical support will
undoubtedly unlock substantial returns in
this sector.
Without decent IT guidance, however,
different lines of business will often
opt for IT software that fits the needs
of the moment. As a result, different
departments can become locked into
disparate systems that continue to
reinforce poor processes.
It is important to involve the internal IT
departments in order that resources
can be pooled for the benefit of the
organisations as a whole. New technology
should sit among and be connected to
legacy systems, to help move business
processes forward. This is protecting
those relevant legacy investments and
complementing them with new efficient
processes.
Organisations should seek to progress
with updated business processes and
flexible IT systems aligned. This requires
good communication and understanding
between IT and internal departments,
or external suppliers. A pooled and
considered approach to the legacy issue
can optimise aging but solid processes
and drive new processes that lead to an
overall competitive advantage.
The key is to establish ways of
empowering the business to take control
and ownership of transformation.
Steve Vallis is a Business Systems
Consultant with Mercato Solutions
D
eploying new digital solutions has
enabled insurance broker Godiva
to grow in a market dominated
by larger competitors.
The Coventry-based firm had been
looking to grow its landlord business
but, with margins tight, it recognised its
business processes had to become far
more efficient in order to expand. The
manual nature of its existing systems
were slow and restricting scalability.
“Looking at the costs from cradle to
grave against the margins available,
we realised we were not able to do the
volume required to make it pay. We had
to fundamentally change our model to
Digital innovation helps Godiva compete
with bigger players
Case study stay in the market,” said Barrie Roberts,
Godiva’s commercial operations manager.
To enact those changes, Godiva decided
it needed to automate processes where
possible and use a software platform
to develop an online insurance product
which the customer could self-manage.
Its new automated online system has
allowed the firm to compete at the
smaller, high volume, end of the market
- previously it had only targeted larger
commercial clients. Being online also
allowed Godiva to pursue new digital
sales channels.
“Landlords often prefer self-service out of
normal business hours and, with our own
branded trading website, we are driving
business with a more customer-centric
approach,” said Roberts.
“The new online system has also allowed
us to unlock new business channels
and work with a large affinity partner to
offer our products online to almost 6,000
developers and lettings agents.
“The business has been able to diversify
thanks to the ability to quickly test
new markets and products. It has also
removed the risk previously associated
with this process and we recently began
automatically cross-selling additional
and more complex products online like
buildings insurance. Put simply, this low
cost operational model has stepped our
business up a level. This is proving
fruitful.”
by Steve Vallis

G
aining value from Big Data rests
on how organisations extract
meaningful insights from an
ever-increasing amount of information.
Although businesses are amassing
huge data sets, it is often unstructured
and underutilised. It is not unusual to
see databases managed by separate
departments in unconnected silos,
offering little value to other areas of the
enterprise. A well planned Big Data
project will, however, complete the data
jigsaw. It will enable the organisation to
drive improvements and efficiency across
the business.
Getting your data in order is a key project
priority but working out how employees
are going to access, interpret and use
this information in their daily processes
should also be a major consideration.
This requires businesses to enact
business transformation alongside
technological solutions.
Fail to plan,
plan to fail
With any Big Data project, it’s critical
to have clear and defined objectives at
the outset. As many industry reports
show projects often fail to deliver as
the outcomes aren’t properly debated,
agreed upon, or even properly written
down before commencing work. The
targeted outcomes must pass the
SMART test - Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Results-based and with a
Timeframe. We have to go further than
to simply hope for more effective data
use.
What tangible value will these new
insights actually bring? Will it automate
previously laborious procedures and
release resources? Can we provide
better services by unifying data and then
using it to drive automated business
processes?
Getting big value from BIG data
Big Data holds huge potential for innovative businesses but extracting
value requires business transformation to go alongside technology.
Peter Robbins explains how organisations can realise this potential.
Bridging the gap
It’s not simply about how an organisation
gets more from the information that
resides within existing systems. It’s about
how best to locate, integrate and push
that data to where people need to use
it. Only when you’ve got a complete
picture can you truly extract measurable
value that can improve processes and
productivity.
The approach should aim to overcome
the huge disconnect between isolated
data islands and create a model that
can join up, normalise and share data
between all enterprise systems - ERP,
CRM, SRM, HR and the spreadsheets
generated and shared within various
teams. This is the bridge between
storing and handling data and actually
extracting actionable value from within it.
Simplify, simplify,
simplify
We are all aware of organisations looking
to source a “Big Data Solution”, implying
it’s a quick win and out of a box. That’s
simplistic. Big Data challenges often
span multiple locations, departments
and roles. In order to maintain high levels
of productivity, organisations require
large scale data management and
simple online tools to guide colleagues
to the value.
A successful approach will provide a
well contained, structured, data-friendly
eco-system and new ways of working.
For example, automating how data is
captured, used and shared within an
organisation will reduce unnecessary
or repetitive human intervention and,
with that, the potential for errors and
omissions.
Employee engagement
A Big Data strategy isn’t just about
utilising a bigger volume of data more
effectively - it’s about the impact on daily
tasks, routines and workflow. With this
in mind, change management is a top
priority for any organisation to consider
within their project planning.
Keeping people informed about the
project and its likely impact is an
important element of delivering success.
If the project is correctly planned from the
outset, colleagues can feel empowered
to contribute their own insights. A truly
successful Big Data project is one that
transforms an organisation positively and,
through more effective data management
at the back end, helps employees to
do a better job.
Peter Robbins is Managing Director
of Probrand Group
by Peter Robbins

T
he modern world is now heavily reliant on the Internet.
Websites and social media have become vital channels of
communication allowing companies to interact and sell to
customers. Online business now contributes 6% of UK GDP.
Businesses are also providing employees and partners with online
access to their systems, and facilitating flexible working through
cloud computing.
Businesses of all sizes are
targets for cyber attack
As the significance of the Internet has grown, however, so has
the incentives for cyber criminals. The scale of the threat is now
enormous and at the highest level organised gangs, and even
nation states, are targeting some of the world’s biggest firms.
However, with sophisticated cybercriminal tool kits now available
for just a few thousand pounds, businesses of all sizes are
vulnerable to attack.
1
5
of the FTSE
100 have been
compromised
by cyber
attacks
- UK Government
More than a third
of global attacks
are aimed at
small businesses
- Symantec
Sophisticated malware and exploit
kits are widely available to cyber
criminals for as little as £3,000
– UK Government
Intellectual property
theft and industrial
espionage costs
UK businesses
£16.8 billion
a year
– Home Office
“For too long the
public's perception
of cybercrime has
been a lone bedroom
hacker stealing money
from a bank account.
But the reality is that
cyber criminals are
organised and global,
with a new breed of
criminals selling 'off-
the-shelf' software to
aid gangs in exploiting
the public.”
- James Brokenshire, Minster
for Crime and Security
“Organisations
must have a
plan for dealing
with infections
and data
breaches; they
can’t just say
this is an issue
that doesn’t
affect me. Any
company that
stores data
is a potential
target.”
- Idan Aharoni, Head of
Cyber Intelligence at RSA
“It is becoming easier to participate in
cybercrime. The challenge is immense, and
it is growing rapidly. For any company the
impact of being targeted in a cyber attack
could be catastrophic, whether for your
intellectual property, reputation or future.”
- William Hague, Foreign Secretary
“The extent of what is
going on is astonishing
– with industrial-scale
processes involving
many thousands of
people lying behind both
state sponsored cyber
espionage and organised
cybercrime.”
- Jonathan Evans,
Director-General of MI5
Security

Security
simply check where traffic is coming from
and going to. Over the past five years
security firms have been rolling out ‘next
generation’ firewalls which can provide a
more thorough level of protection.
“What is needed is a deep package
inspection and that is what a next
generation firewall provides - it digs
further down to check for a virus or an
intrusion,” said Mark Lomas, IT consultant
at Icomm Technologies.
“If you have not refreshed your firewall
within the last three to five years the
chances are that you are using a legacy
firewall which is no longer fit for purpose.”
The Study revealed, however, that almost
one in six (17%) organisations have
not, or were unsure whether they have,
updated their firewall in the last five years
– which is leaving them vulnerable to
modern attack methods.
The danger lies in the fact that
cybercriminals have now found ways
I
t is a depressing fact that cyber
criminality continues to become more
sophisticated, and no one is safe from
attack.
Big or small we are all vulnerable. Even
the biggest technology firms such as
Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, who
you would think could adequately defend
themselves, have admitted to breaches.
From a financial and reputational
perspective, the consequences of these
attacks can be huge. In one of the largest
global incidents to date, US retail giant
Target saw the personal and financial
details of up to 110 million customers
compromised.
As more and more high profile incidents
like this have hit the headlines, there
has been a dawning realisation within
organisations, of all sizes, that they need
to take cyber security seriously. And the
evidence shows that businesses are
starting to do that.
The Icomm Technologies Survey,
conducted with more than 400 IT
executives in small to medium businesses
(SMBs) in the UK, has revealed that more
than a third (37%) of firms have updated
their firewall protection within the last 18
months and more than half (56%) within
the last 30 months.
Companies have been advised to update
their firewalls as the increasing complexity
of cyber attacks has meant solutions
are now required to do much more than
Firewall Survey
by Paul Maher
to con and trick their way around these
traditional solutions. They will also attempt
to smuggle malware through firewalls by
burying it within encrypted traffic which
appears on the surface to be safe.
“Today, up to 35% of enterprise traffic is
secured using the Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL) protocol. Cybercriminals know this,
and they have begun to use SSL to hide
their attacks. Organisations which are
still relying on legacy firewall with no or
limited SSL Inspection capabilities can
be compromised” said Florian Malecki,
International Product Marketing Director
at Dell.
“These Icomm Technologies Survey
results suggests that message is finally
starting to get through. The problem is
there are still many businesses, especially
SMBs, which think they are not being
targeted and don’t believe they need to
update, when that is not true.”
Research, by Symantec, has shown
that 30% of all global cyber attacks are
actually aimed at small businesses, where
defences are perceived to be weaker.
Cybercriminals will also target SMBs in
‘stepping stone’ attacks as they seek
to target larger organisations.“Large
companies can work with many SMBs,
and they may be given some admin
rights. Criminals will look to exploit those
rights and attack the smaller businesses
where defences might not be as tight,”
explains Malecki.
1/8 companies have
never tested
their firewall

could affect bandwidth and prevent access
to essential cloud applications such as
Salesforce.com or other CRM systems.
Next generation firewall will, however,
allow you to reserve a percentage of the
bandwidth for certain applications to
ensure the business remains productive.”
Paul Maher is a freelance
technology journalist
One sixth
of organisations have
not, or are unsure if
they have, updated their
firewall over the last
five years
TESTING
It is one thing having a next generation
firewall but it is another thing checking
the solution that has been deployed is
actually doing its job. It is recommended
that companies check their firewall with
penetration testing at least once a year
on average. For companies with sensitive
information or customer’s personal or
financial details, this might take place
quarterly.
The Icomm Technologies Survey found,
however, nearly one in every eight
companies (12%) have never tested their
firewall to check that it is working properly.
“I’m actually pleasantly pleased that that
figure is not higher,” said Malecki. “A lot
of people seem to think because they
have a firewall they are fully protected
when they might not have the right
policies in place. Penetration testing is
important to ensure everything is working
as it should.”
He also adds: “As Verizon’s recent Data
Breach survey has shown, when a
business is compromised it can be a long
time before that is discovered and quite
often it is the third parties doing these
penetration tests that are the ones who
are finding these breaches.”
REFRESH
When it comes to refreshing a firewall
solution, companies are also advised
to do so every three to five years, as
they would their servers. This is not just
about evolving threats but also about
performance. If a company grows in
size, organisations need to be sure their
solution can handle the increase in traffic,
and a bottleneck is not created.
The Icomm Technologies Survey revealed
almost half of firms (48%) have plans to
carry out this refresh within the next five
years. Although, almost a third (32%)
admitted they either don’t have any
plans or claim they will never update their
firewall.
One respondent also said they will only
update once their current solution has
broken. “It would be interesting to know
when someone thinks their firewall is
broken, as it’s not a case of checking
whether the lights are on,” said Lomas.
“If you have a traditional firewall it will not
be protecting you in the same way it was
when you bought it, so in my eyes it is
already broken.”
By not deploying the latest technology,
companies will also forego additional
benefits, such as the granular controls
provided by next generation firewalls.
In an era of cloud computing, next
generation firewalls are now ensuring
that productivity is not impacted by
overwhelming demands on Internet
bandwidth.
These granular controls will, for example,
allow the marketing department to
promote the business on websites such
as Facebook and YouTube but can at
the same time prevent online gaming
or excessive video streaming on these
platforms.
Malecki explains: “If an England football
game is on, some companies will be
happy to let their staff stream this but it
32%have no plans to,
or claim they will never,
update their firewall

Outstanding
Integrator
of the Year

Security
B
usinesses with legacy firewalls
are leaving themselves
vulnerable to ‘ransomware’
attacks by not refreshing their solutions.
Security experts, such as McAfee, have
highlighted a big uptick in this type of
cyber-attack, which sees criminals hack
organisations, encrypt sensitive data and
hold it to ransom.
Successful attacks often result in the
perpetrator attempting to extort money
for the money. Icomm Technologies
was privy to one such attack in which
the hacker pledged to expose sensitive
information to a company’s entire email
Legacy ﬁrewalls increase
the risk of ransomware
Case Study contact book unless £500 was paid into
their bank account.
A word document file left on the
business owner’s computer read ‘You
have been hacked’. Inside were details
of the criminal’s demands and the
consequences of what would happen if
payment was not made.
The menacing message read: “I do not
require to do much more work on my
part to ruin you.” The hacker even left
a reference number to be quoted for
payment purposes.
“I have heard of hackers doing this before
but I’ve never seen anything so brazen or
cheeky as to quote a reference number
for payment,” said Icomm Technologies
Technical Manager, Mark Allbutt.
“The client was vulnerable as they had
been using a legacy firewall that does not
interrogate traffic and application use. We
had made them aware of the risks, but
from their perspective it had been a case
of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’.
“Unfortunately the older a firewall gets
the more vulnerable it becomes and the
hackers are getting cleverer.”
W
ith organisations able to
access new technology and
flexible working solutions
easily through the Cloud, interest in this
delivery model continues to grow. This
appeal will see demand for cloud services
increase by 25% this year, according to
research by IDC.
Given the online nature of the Cloud,
however, companies need to take steps
to ensure they always have easy access
to their applications and solutions, and
that their access is secure.
Modern ﬁrewalls
As applications are being accessed over
the Internet, there is a need to deploy
firewalls which go beyond simple security
and also monitor traffic and bandwidth.
The modern firewall, therefore, needs
to allow traffic controls to be set at a
granular level.
Securing access to the
cloud an imperative
As demand for cloud services continues to surge, Ian Callens looks at how firms
can enable these solutions without exposing the business to risk.
For example, policies can be put in place
to give additional bandwidth to one
type of application over another when
necessary. If enough user sessions of a
preferred type, such as remote desktop
services, come on-stream your firewall
policy can throttle other applications,
such as video, to ensure business-centric
applications have enough throughput.
Strong authenticated
access
When accessing applications remotely
over the Internet, another effective
security solution is to deploy a secure
sockets layer virtual private network
(SSL VPN), especially when coupled with
‘token-less’ two factor authentication.
SSL VPN gives remote users secure
access to client server applications and
internal network connections using any
web enabled device. The two factor
authentication provides more secure
access via the end user device by
making use of two separate channels,
for example a desktop computer and a
mobile phone.
Data encryption and
fail-over
Best practice would also include
encryption from source. IT administrators
should be issued with a personally
defined encryption key before data is sent
to the cloud. Business continuity best
practices would also require cloud data to
be backed up to a co-location for added
fail-over and protection from any form of
disaster.
Ian Callens is Sales Manager at
Icomm Technologies
by Ian Callens

Cloud
Business Software Alliance (BSA) claims
regulatory governance is not consistent
and many countries compare poorly to
the UK. For example, the BSA’s Global
Cloud Computing scorecard ranks
the major growth economy of Brazil
particularly badly. It places the UK sixth
in the world on 76.6% for protection
against cybercrime, while Brazil scored
just 35.1%.
Research firm IDC has also urged
businesses to carry out thorough
background checks when choosing a
cloud provider, after it claimed that 30%
of suppliers active in the cloud market are
likely to be out of business by 2015.
B
everage chain Coffee Republic
has prepared for future growth by
embracing cloud solutions.
During a recent refresh to its ICT
infrastructure, the London-based coffee
company decided to consolidate its
physical estate in order to reduce costs.
It also took the decision, however, to
increase IT security and improve business
continuity capabilities by deploying cloud
backup.
Mark Roughton, IS manager at Coffee
Republic, said: “We had an aging
infrastructure that offered little resilience or
fail-over. This was coupled with unreliable
access to our core data centre. It was
not a platform for growth.”
After virtualising 60% of its server
estate, within its London data centre,
The cloud helps coffee republic
prepare for growth
An integrated cloud and
on-premise solution
offers an environment
primed for performance,
agility and high availability
the organisation was able to provide
fail-over for its Exchange, SQL database
and EPOS System data via replication
at hosted data centres in Manchester
and Birmingham, using the cloud service
approach.
Roughton added: “An integrated cloud
and on-premise solution offers an
environment primed for performance,
agility and high availability. It is a cost
effective way of protecting the business
and improving the quality of service our IT
system delivers.
“Long term this approach will save us
money in both operational overheads
and capital expenditure. The secure and
robust cloud backup solution itself means
we now have a backup and recovery
procedure without the added cost.
“This development breaks the traditional
mould for us and furnishes the business
with the most efficient and future-proofed
IT platform for us to go forward.”
Coffee Republic also improved availability
and secure access to its data centre
by deploying next generation Sonicwall
firewall.
U
K businesses are being urged
to carry out due diligence on
their cloud storage and backup
providers to avoid falling foul of data
protection regulations.
With the threat of cybercrime and cyber
espionage escalating it is important
customers question potential providers
and know exactly where customer or
employee data is being physically kept.
Not doing so could put an organisation
at risk of breaching the Data Protection
Act 1998. The law specifically states that
companies need to keep information
secure and ensure data is not transferred
to countries outside the European
Economic Area unless it is adequately
protected.
Firms risk legal action by
not protecting cloud data
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s
Office (ICO) has shown it is also prepared
to fine any organisation not taking data
security seriously. It issued fines totalling
£2.6m for data security breaches last
year, this included a £250,000 against
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
Cloud service providers provide viable
and economical solutions to the challenge
posed by huge data growth and can
provide a second data storage site to
enable disaster recovery. However, few
cloud providers openly state the country,
general locality and legal jurisdiction which
cover the data being stored.
It may suit them to store data in countries
where costs are lower but a report by the
Case study

event of any down time? Some providers
will simply give you free credit in the event
that they have a problem, whereas other
providers will put their money where their
mouth is and give a refund if they have a
problem. In this respect, it is important to
examine the service level agreement and
look at the guaranteed up time.
Finally it’s a good idea to double check
what back up and disaster recovery
arrangements are in place and whether
data is likely to be moved. Some
providers might store data in the UK on
day one but six months down the line
you might find hosting has moved to a
different location - in some cases without
your knowledge.
Hybrid approach
In certain circumstances an organisation
may decide cloud services are unsuitable.
Legalities may require their data is
held within the United Kingdom or the
European Union, and companies may shy
away from cloud providers completely in
this situation.
Organisations may also have bespoke
applications that simply need to be run
in-house. However, there might be other
more generic software, for example
Microsoft Exchange, Outlook or Office
services that can be provided under
a software as a service model. In this
situation organisations may look to adopt
a more hybrid approach and use cloud
services in some areas but look to keep
other elements in-house.
Mark Lomas, IT Consultant with
Icomm Technologies
W
hen businesses weigh up
the Cloud they will consider
two main factors - cost and
management.
Some will want complete control over
their data and to own their infrastructure.
If this is the case they will face an upfront
expense for the cost of the equipment,
the software licensing and the resources
required to house all of the servers
running their applications.
They will also need to look at refreshing
their technology every three to five years.
On top of this, they will need to bring in an
IT team or have a support service in place
to maintain the servers.
The Cloud approach is more of a rental
model, without the big upfront cost
for equipment or software licenses. If
applications and servers are hosted in the
Cloud, it will be the service provider who
also has the responsibility for monitoring,
maintaining and refreshing the technology.
Businesses just take out an agreement
and start paying for a certain number of
services on a monthly basis.
Which model is the most cost effective
will vary from business to business - it
is important to look at the return on
investment in each scenario. Before any
decision in regards to cloud services,
however, there are a number of other
factors which need to be taken into
account.
Factors to consider
Firstly, where is your data going to be
stored and how will it be protected?
Secondly, what sort of financially backed
guarantee are they offering you in the
Cloud, on-premise or hybrid?
With cloud service usage expected to grow rapidly during 2014,
Mark Lomas examines the pros and cons of going off premise.
Which model is the
most cost effective
will vary from business
to business - it is
important to look at the
return on investment in
each scenario.
by Mark Lomas

W
ith server downtime proving
to be the number one
technical issue impacting
UK businesses, it is essential that
organisations have an effective disaster
recovery solution in place.
A survey of almost 2,000 SMBs,
conducted by Icomm Technologies,
revealed that server downtime was
affecting organisations more than any
Server downtime: the number
one IT issue affecting ﬁrms
other IT problem (22%). This is due to
factors which include power problems
and outright server failure.
Further research has shown that 86%
of businesses experienced at least
one episode of server downtime last
year – leading to an average loss of 2.2
working days. On average organisations
experienced 16 outages a year.
“Company profits are hampered by poor
business continuity from unscheduled
IT downtime. Without proactive
management of IT, businesses are
inadvertently costing themselves tens
of thousands of pounds in lost working
hours,” said Ian Callens, business leader
at Icomm Technologies.
“In this digital era, businesses need
to have access to data and software
applications at all times. Ensuring
quality business continuity demands
86%of businesses
experienced at least
one episode of server
downtime last year
A
n IT disaster can take many
forms. Some can be caused
by extreme events, such as an
earthquake or hurricane, while others
simply come down to the failure of an
individual piece of equipment.
Many businesses would find it disastrous
if this failure knocked out their email and
communications infrastructure. If things
were not back up and running quickly,
and the necessary preparations had not
been put in place, there is a genuine risk
that organisations could face the end of
their business.
A full business continuity plan will ensure
there are processes in place to ensure
Mark Lomas, IT consultant with Icomm Technologies,
explains how the Cloud is helping organisations get back
online with minimal disruption.
Are you prepared for a disaster ?
that the IT system can withstand any
failure and can continue functioning
normally with little or no disruption.
A completely fault tolerant solution may
be beyond some companies but everyone
can, at least, have a documented set of
procedures to implement in the event that
something goes seriously wrong.
Some organisations may think they are
safe because they have got some sort of
tape backup but many are simply putting
the tape in the server every day without
carrying out the necessary testing. Also,
many backup solutions only target key
data for protection rather than the full
server - when for most IT environments
the key foundation element is the server.
Companies need to be thinking about
more sophisticated technologies such
as virtualisation and full server imaging,
which takes a complete image of the
entire server hard drive. If we think about
the nature of virtualisation, we’re turning
each individual server into an image.
This allows third party cloud providers
to replicate all your data and virtual
machines, in a secondary location, and
get everything back online quickly in the
event that you have a problem.
by Mark Lomas
Cloud
constant and timely network and server
maintenance.”
The Icomm survey also found businesses
were suffering major IT issues as a result
of data growth, with 15% of IT issues
related to low disk space and 16.5%
caused by backup failures.
Callens added: “If data storage and
backup services are not working
properly and a company encounters a
disaster, such as burst pipes flooding
their data centre, this ultimately could be
devastating for the business. Research
has shown that most organisations
which experience a disaster without
effective backup go out of business
within two years.”
Ian Callens is Sales Manager at
Icomm Technologies
by Ian Callens

Infrastructure
I
T today is about doing more with
less. Corporate demands on the
infrastructure are increasing but
budgets are often frozen, if not shrinking.
So how can companies modernise their
IT infrastructures to make the most of
their resources?
Consolidating equipment using
virtualisation is still one of the best
ways to drive those efficiencies into the
IT department. Traditionally, companies
bought a separate dedicated physical
server for every application that they
wanted to run. This avoided applications
clashing with each other, and stopped
vendors dodging responsibility by
blaming each other’s software for a
problem during support calls.
It also meant that most of the servers
used little more than 10% of CPU power,
which was uneconomical. By recreating
those physical servers as software
containers, virtualisation consolidates
multiple operating systems onto one
physical box - enabling them to run
their own applications while maximising
resource usage.
“If you can put in something that saves
money, then it’s far more likely to
happen,” says Tony Lock, programme
director and analyst at IT advisory firm
Freeform Dynamics. “It’s a case of ‘let’s
do this with an eye of what can we use
it for later’.”
Modernising the IT Infrastructure
by Danny Bradbury
What’s next?
Beyond simple cost savings, just what can
virtualisation be used for later, and
what comes next in the journey to
modernise the IT infrastructure?
In many cases businesses will want more
flexibility over their virtualised operating
systems, perhaps enabling them to be
provisioned and deprovisioned dynamically,
as workloads request it. Those virtual
machines may need to be moved between
different physical servers for performance
and backup purposes. IT departments
may even want to give users the chance
to provision their own virtual machines for
testing and development. This is where
private cloud computing comes in.
True cloud computing includes the ability
to automatically allocate workloads across
virtualised infrastructures to make best
use of the available resources. It can
also include a self-service layer, enabling
business users to specify their own
computing resources where necessary -
and that can include storage resources
too.
This flexibility enables cloud deployments
to extend beyond the confines of the
enterprise and Alex Hilton, CEO of the
Cloud Industry Forum, argues that public
cloud environments are becoming a
significant factor in many IT strategies.
Surveys have shown that 69% of
organisations are adopting public cloud,
he says.
But not all data is destined for the cloud,
he admits, suggesting that hybrid cloud
deployments that stretch between public
and private infrastructure will become more
significant in the future. “We’re showing
a slight drop in organisations saying ‘I will
put everything into the cloud’, more and
more they’re saying that it’s going to be
a mixed environment,” he says.

Storage and networking
CPU time isn’t the only IT resource that can be dynamically
allocated. Storage is another area where companies can
modernise their infrastructures by making provisioning more
flexible.
Historically, companies have also tied local storage to
individual physical servers, connecting them via direct SCSI
links, for example. But that dedicated the capacity on that
storage device just to that server, creating pockets of unused
storage around the organisation and forcing up capital
expenditure.
These storage infrastructures can then be placed onto high-
speed networks known as storage area networks (SANs),
again separating the logical resource from the physical
hardware. It’s effectively a cloud for storage.
Appliances: modernisation in a box
All of these developments are being encapsulated in new
generations of hardware appliances that marry various
features together. For example, it is possible to buy a 'cloud
in a box' appliance that orchestrates all of your virtualisation
and cloud management for you. Similarly, appliances can take
many of the headaches out of virtualising storage.
“The idea is to move out of the server and inside an
appliance,” Lomas explains. “We can then flexibly configure
the amount of storage so that we can go into an admin
console and type in how much storage we allocate to a
specific server. That lets us keep on flexibly changing the
amount of storage that is allocated to different workloads in
the environment.”
The key here is that the appliance automates a lot of the
management, packaging configuration into a single easy to
administer interface. This brings these modernisation steps
within the reach of smaller businesses that may not have had
the expertise to configure different components of a cloud
server or networking solution to work together.
While these developments continue in the server room,
there is also a modernisation movement happening on the
client side. The virtualisation movement has extended to the
desktop in many cases - with virtual desktop integration pulling
client-side operating systems back into the server. Thin client
devices are being used to access desktops that can be more
easily configured, managed, and where necessary, rebuilt and
reprovisioned.
And the devices themselves are changing, as tablets and
smartphones revolutionise the work environment, thanks to the
emergence of 'bring your own device' policies that allow users
to bring different device formats into the workplace.
With IT infrastructures evolving so quickly both at the back
end and on the client side, today’s IT department has an
unprecedented opportunity to cut capital expenditure and
operating costs in the server room. The modernisation process
can also create a stronger relationship with the user base by
offering them more flexible ways of working both inside and
outside the office.
But effective modernisation takes a mature approach to
planning architectural change, testing and deploying different
components over time. Few companies forklift a modern IT
infrastructure into place all at once but instead will opt for an
iterative approach. After all, if Rome wasn’t built in a day, it
probably won’t be renovated in 24 hours either.
Danny Bradbury is an award winning
freelance technology journalist
In many cases, networks must also be upgraded to cope
with the demands from virtualised storage and servers, and
consolidated core networking has become a key development
trend in the data centre. Using high-speed connections for all
traffic can help to reduce cabling and I/O port overhead, while
also making core network management far easier.
Mark Lomas, IT consultant at Icomm Technologies, says that
different high-speed networking protocols have developed
quickly in the datacentre. Fibre channel, which has traditionally
been a go-to architecture for high-speed SANs, has been
consolidated onto high-speed Ethernet networks in recent
years, using the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol.
“Converged network adaptors are starting to become a thing,
thanks to increased demand for bandwidth and protocol
efficiency,” he says.

enterprise
PARTNER
Gold Partner

I
t is estimated that just keeping the
lights on in the data centre is, on
average, eating up between 72%
and 85% of IT budgets. The time it
takes to attend to hardware, software
and infrastructure is also curtailing the
IT team’s ability to focus on progressive
projects.
Organisations can free up resources,
however, if they bring components
together and introduce more automation.
This will deliver the efficiencies necessary
to reduce costs and the pressure on time.
IT executives can then concentrate on the
initiatives which are capable of providing
businesses with a competitive advantage.
There are three ways businesses can do
this:
Pool resources
Organisations can reduce the amount
of hardware needed in the data centre
by bringing components together. By
consolidating data in a storage area
network (SAN), efficiency technologies,
such as deduplication and thin provision,
can be deployed which reduces the
amount of physical equipment requiring
maintenance. This also means less power
and cooling - freeing up extra finance for
new projects.
The deployment of automation for
systems such as backup would also
reduce the amount of manual checks
currently carried out by IT staff.
Increase agility
Organisations can also free up resources
by creating a more agile data centre
which utilises the Cloud. Cloud providers
are allowing businesses to scale their
infrastructure up and down as and when
required. By taking advantage of cloud
Freeing up resources to
drive innovation
With the job of maintaining data centres overwhelming
the IT team in many small to medium sized businesses,
Mark Allbutt looks at how freeing up resources can help
organisations drive innovation.
services, firms can reduce the amount of
kit they need to maintain on-premise.
If organisations are experiencing seasonal
peaks in demand on the data centre this
may well be a cost effective option. An
e-commerce business may experience
heavy demand for just a few weeks of
the year and then be able to operate with
a reduce infrastructure for the remaining
months.
Be more responsive
If IT teams find themselves unable to
respond quickly to the demands of
the business, they could be creating
headaches for themselves when end
users seek their own solutions. The
increased usage of cloud services has
created a scenario where individual
departments are prepared to source their
own solutions - rather than wait for the IT
department to get around to solving the
issue.
However, as employees use cloud
services, such as sync and share tools, IT
has been left to deal with consequences.
Many are having to deal with the potential
security issues this has created to ensure
sensitive information doesn’t leave the
business.
IT teams need to get ahead of the end
user and be more proactive in this regard,
if they are going to alleviate the tendency
for employees to look elsewhere.
It may be the only way the IT Team can
get ahead, and become more responsive,
is to free up resources in the first place.
Reducing hardware, introducing efficiency
technologies and automation, and utilising
the cloud where possible could all be
essential in achieving that goal.
Mark Allbutt is Technical Manager
at Icomm Technologies
by Mark Allbutt
Infrastructure

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