Cross Channel: Support Firm Struggles And Cloud Storage Changes

Welcome to Cross Channel, a weekly round up of the most pertinent stories from our sister site ChannelBiz, where you can find out all the latest developments, views and strategies from the world of the channel.

40 percent of top IT support firms struggling financially

Nearly  40 percent of the UK’s top IT support companies are struggling financially or near to going bust, according to a report from industry analyst Plimsoll.

The report highlighted  790 out of 1,500 of the UK’s top IT support companies have been rated as “strong”, leaving around 40 percent in more financially challenging situations.

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BT, Dropbox, Google forced to change cloud storage terms

Cloud storage users can expect “fairer deals” from BT, Dropbox, Google and Mozy who are “improving their terms and conditions” following action taken by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The four companies worked with the CMA to ensure that cloud storage users are made aware of changes to the service they are offered and can decide what to do in response.

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Broadcom acquires Brocade for $5.5bn and offloads Ruckus

Chip maker Broadcom is acquiring fibre channel and storage area networking firm Brocade for $5.5 billion in cash, plus taking on $400 million in net debt.

Broadcom revealed plans to sell Brocade’s IP Networking business, consisting of wireless and campus networking, data centre switching and routing, and software networking solutions. This includes offloading Ruckus Wireless, which Brocade only recently acquired.

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Almost all resellers have enjoyed growth over the year

Nearly all  of channel resellers, 97 percent, have experienced growth over the last 12 months, according to research from Censuswide.

The research, conducted for hybrid cloud services provider Pulsant, showed that growth in the market could be attributed to multiple factors. These include acquiring new talent (63 percent of respondents), incorporating SaaS or cloud into their product offering (47 percent) and marketing initiatives (37 percent).

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