NC Feb-Mar 2024

INDUSTRY NEWS
The service enables providers to demonstrate to their customers
that they understand their network, including any current issues and
frustrations. A comprehensive report with detailed evidence
facilitates fact-based discussions on where and how to make
improvements. This strengthens the relationship between service
provider and customer whilst giving the provider an opportunity to
deliver accurate advice and upsell services.
Martin Saunders, Chief Operating Officer at Highlight said,
"Modern IT departments are struggling with ever growing demands
and expectations on their time and resources. Despite huge
advances in simplifying the management of networks through cloud
platforms like Cisco Meraki, many IT leaders are looking to their
partner to manage the infrastructure that underpins IT. Customers are
also looking for partners they can trust to become virtual members of
their IT department. However, the managed services model can be a
complex shift for some partners to make. With the Network
Assessment feature, Cisco Partners have a tangible and easy way to
prove their ability to remove the network management burden from
IT, whilst setting the foundation for building longer term recurring
revenue relationships with their customers via a managed service."
x530-28GSX full fibre switch from Allied Telesis
Allied Telesis has introduced its x530-28GSX full fibre switch,
bringing flexibility and network optimisation to the company's
x530 Series of multi-Gigabit switches. Months in development, the
x530-28GSX switch is a 24-port 100/1000X SFP stackable switch
with 4 SFP+ ports and 2 fixed power supplies. It can aggregate a
24x1 Gigabit fibre link to a 4x10 Gigabit fibre link and up to 8
units can be stacked using Virtual Chassis Stacking (VCStack) to
build a 192 Gigabit fibre aggregator. The switch also supports
copper connectivity via SFP/SFP+ ports allowing the maximum
flexibility of both copper and fibre as required.
"Businesses and organisations need to meet the rapidly changing
demand put on networks by applications such as artificial intelligence,
5G backhaul and edge computing. The x530-28GSX enables the
addition of bandwidth using either copper or fibre at either 1 or
10Gb/s, and because of its high resiliency, this capacity increase
works very well for numerous large site markets such as education
campuses, FTTx deployments, utilities, and city-wide metro networks,"
said Chris Dyke, Sales Director UK & Ireland at Allied Telesis.
Elevated 2.5G performance for SBs and prosumers
Zyxel Networks has launched the XMG1915 series, a family of
smart managed switches designed for small businesses (SBs)
and professional home users (prosumers). Available in 8 and 16-
port models, the XMG1915 series provide 2.5 Multi-Gigabit
Ethernet capability across all ports. There are also 10G uplinks
for connections to the network core, and PoE++ options that will
provide as much as 60W to a connected device. Flexible cloud
management makes the switches easy to deploy and manage.
Kell Lin, Senior Associate Vice President of Zyxel Networking
Strategic Business Unit, said: "Changing work patterns, the
increased bandwidth demands of modern applications and
services, and the growing number of devices being used on the
network edge are a significant challenge. The XMG1915 series
provides a fast, versatile, and cost-effective solution, with the
added benefit of simple deployment and management options
through our Nebula cloud management platform."
McCambridge Duffy saves and modernises with Apogee
McCambridge Duffy, a leading UK insolvency firm, has
partnered with managed workplace services (MWS) provider
Apogee Corporation to boost workplace efficiencies and modernise
its IT infrastructure. Since the collaboration began, the firm has
already reduced a large proportion of its yearly operating costs by
almost half a million pounds. Apogee digitised the operations at
McCambridge Duffy with the implementation of its Managed IT
Services and Digital Document Service. Prior to engaging the MWS
provider, the firm was suffering from up to two IT outages a month,
costing approximately £31,000, which have been reduced to zero.
As a business heavily reliant on paper-based documents, the yearly
costs associated with postage accumulating to £60,000 have been
cut down to £8,400. McCambridge Duffy has also benefitted from
improved efficiency across its workforce. Client caseloads have
almost doubled from 5,000 to 9,500, without needing to increase
headcount, and a meeting of creditors appointment now takes just
7 days to process, down from 45, an 80% reduction.
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