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  ITWNET and IVI - Collaboration to bring ITCMF to the IT practitioners globally

  In a recent event at Maynooth University in Ireland, Alejandro Debenedet introduced to the audience the benefits of the joint venture between ITWNET and IVI.

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  this is a test blog. Please delete it.

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  ITCMF Digital Readiness Training

  ITWNET together with IVI Research have developed a completely new training and certification framework that will allow the IT professional to grow its knowledge and contribute to its organization's teams so as to be able to move forward in the Digital Transformation era.

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  ITCMF Digital Readiness Training

  ITWNET together with IVI Research have developed a completely new training and certification framework that will allow the IT professional to grow its knowledge and contribute to its organization's teams so as to be able to move forward in the Digital Transformation era.

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  AWS remains well ahead of the field in the cloud infrastructure market

  There are five major cloud infrastructure service providers that are growing more rapidly than Amazon Web Services (AWS). However, AWS as market leader remains well ahead of the field with a worldwide market share that is holding steady at around 33%. 
  While Microsoft, Google, IBM, Alibaba and Oracle all achieved Q1 growth rates that were subs...  moreThere are five major cloud infrastructure service providers that are growing more rapidly than Amazon Web Services (AWS). However, AWS as market leader remains well ahead of the field with a worldwide market share that is holding steady at around 33%. 
  While Microsoft, Google, IBM, Alibaba and Oracle all achieved Q1 growth rates that were substantially higher than that of AWS, AWS revenues are still comfortably bigger than the other five combined. Microsoft, Google and Alibaba all achieved annual growth rates of 80% or more. Salesforce and Rackspace are the two other companies that feature in the ranking of top cloud providers. While they have lower growth rates than the other providers, they are maintaining strong positions in particular market niches. 
  
  Growing revenuesWith most of the major operators having now released their earnings data for Q1, Synergy estimates that quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues (including IaaS, PaaS and hosted private cloud services) have now reached almost $10 billion and continue to grow at well over 40% per year. While AWS, Microsoft and Google are the lead providers in IaaS/PaaS, IBM continues to lead in hosted private cloud, where Rackspace and some traditional IT service providers feature more prominently than they do in public cloud.
  “At the top end of the cloud provider market we’re now seeing a clear stratification featuring AWS, a group of higher-growth chasers, and a couple of more focused niche players,” said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst and Research Director at Synergy Research Group. “Beyond those leading companies, the cloud market features a long tail of small-to-medium sized providers or companies that have only a minor position in the market, typically based on either a specific country or focused application area. There are decent growth opportunities for some of these smaller players, but they are unlikely to make much impact in terms of overall worldwide market share.”   less

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  Oracle buys digital measurement cloud company Moat

  Oracle today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Moat, the fastest-growing digital measurement cloud company. Moat will join Oracle Data Cloud, which uses data and analytics to enhance media for leading marketers and publishers. The combination of Oracle and Moat will connect data to consumer attention for better media experiences ...  moreOracle today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Moat, the fastest-growing digital measurement cloud company. Moat will join Oracle Data Cloud, which uses data and analytics to enhance media for leading marketers and publishers. The combination of Oracle and Moat will connect data to consumer attention for better media experiences and business outcomes.
  Moat will remain an independent platform within Oracle Data Cloud, providing measurement, analytics and intelligence to large brands including Nestle, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, and leading publishers such as ESPN, Facebook, NBCUniversal, Snapchat and YouTube. Moat’s enterprise client base and industry-leading attention analytics and intelligence suite provide a strong complement to Oracle Data Cloud’s audience targeting and measurement solutions.
  Full suite of targeting and measurement solutions“I am thrilled to welcome CEO Jonah Goodhart and the entire Moat team to Oracle Data Cloud,” said Eric Roza, SVP and GM of Oracle Data Cloud. “Moat has grown its attention analytics business by over 100% in the past year, providing actionable insights around viewability, brand safety, non-human traffic, and ad creative to over 600 publisher, brand and agency clients. With the Moat acquisition, Oracle Data Cloud now offers brands and publishers a full suite of targeting and measurement solutions to improve the outcome of virtually every type of digital advertising campaign.”
  “It is with great enthusiasm that we join forces with Oracle Data Cloud,” said Jonah Goodhart, CEO and Co-Founder of Moat. “When Oracle approached us about working together, we began to see the huge potential to jointly drive innovation. At our core, we believe there is an opportunity to fundamentally improve marketing and storytelling by brands and publishers through better data and analytics.”  less

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  Flexible Working is the Path Forward – Maintel Study

  64 per cent of remote workers don’t feel micromanaged
  73 per cent believe their company has a good flexible work policy
  58 per cent would spend less time in an office environment
  
  L...  more64 per cent of remote workers don’t feel micromanaged
  73 per cent believe their company has a good flexible work policy
  58 per cent would spend less time in an office environment
  
  London, 26 April 2017: Maintel, the fast-growing provider of managed communications services, today announced the results of a study on flexible working preferences in the UK. The study polled 1,000 employed adults in the UK, ages 18 and over.
  The study revealed that today’s multi-generational workforce prefers flexible working to traditional office hours and location. Flexible work policies are perceived as an important workplace benefit, with 73 per cent of respondents citing the company they work for has good flexible work policies in place. Indeed, 64 per cent of remote workers don’t feel micromanaged, and 58 per cent would take the opportunity to spend even less time in an office, if it were available.
  In addition, the survey found that 60 per cent of respondents believe technology can replace in-person interaction in the workplace. Yet there remain challenges with flexible work, including indifference regarding the security of company data (66 per cent) and distractions at home (31 per cent).
  “Employee expectations for when, where, and how they work continue to evolve. This means businesses’ management, policies, and IT systems must do the same,” said Rufus Grig, CTO at Maintel. “The real trailblazers put their employees’ working styles first, and use technology to back that up. For some companies this still requires a culture shift, judging employees on outcomes rather than attendance.”
  “Equipping employees with the right solutions to successfully work remotely and keep company data safe is critical. This enables effective employee performance, recruitment and retention, delivering a good ROI in technology investments.”
  Key Research Findings:
  Flexible work is the future:
  
  Almost three quarters of respondents to the survey (73 per cent) think that their company has a good flexible work policy in place
  Two thirds (66 per cent) would feel comfortable asking their manager if they could work more flexibly
  Those between the ages of 25 - 44 and working outside of London were mostly likely to feel comfortable asking their manager for flexible work options
  Almost six in ten (58 per cent) said that they would take advantage of the opportunity to spend less time in an office environment
  The 55+ age group were more likely to take advantage of working away from the office than those between the ages of 18 – 24
  Those living outside of London were more likely to take advantage of not working in an office environment
  
  The implications of flexible work:
  
  60 per cent of respondents believe technology can replace in-person interaction in the workplace
  Two thirds (66 per cent) of those polled say that they do not worry about the safety of company data when working remotely
  Distractions were the greatest challenges when working from home (31 per cent), followed by fixing IT problems (30 per cent), getting hold of colleagues (28 per cent), and feeling isolated (25 per cent)
  The greatest distractions when working from home were television (30 per cent), household appliances e.g. dishwasher, washing machine (24 per cent), and household chores (20 per cent)
  
  METHODOLOGY - The study was conducted by OnePoll between 12th – 29th February, 2017 and polled 1000 employed adults in the UK, ages 18 and over. Participants were recruited online and were paid to participate.
  More information on flexible working preferences among employed adults in the UK, and effective strategies to implement unified communications solutions can be found here: http://www.maintel.co.uk/connecting-your-potential-with-unified-communications  less

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  HPE completes acquisition of Nimble Storage

  Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has completed its acquisition of Nimble Storage, the San Jose, California-based provider of predictive all-flash and hybrid-flash storage solutions. HPE paid $12.50 per share in cash representing a net cash purchase price at closing of $1.0 billion. In addition to the purchase price, HPE assumed or paid out Nimble’s...  moreHewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has completed its acquisition of Nimble Storage, the San Jose, California-based provider of predictive all-flash and hybrid-flash storage solutions. HPE paid $12.50 per share in cash representing a net cash purchase price at closing of $1.0 billion. In addition to the purchase price, HPE assumed or paid out Nimble’s unvested equity awards, with a value of approximately $200 million at closing.
  The acquisition of Nimble expands HPE’s position in the high-growth flash storage market, which was estimated to be approximately $15 billion in 2016 and nearly $20 billion by 2020, with the all-flash segment growing at a nearly 17 percent compound annual growth rate. HPE will bring Nimble’s predictive flash offerings for the entry to midrange segments together with HPE’s scalable midrange to high-end 3PAR solutions, SimpliVity solutions and affordable MSA products. The acquisition also accelerates Nimble’s growth momentum by bringing together complementary product portfolios and leveraging HPE’s expansive go-to-market capability, partner ecosystem and leading server platform.
  Making hybrid IT simple“This deal, in combination with our recent acquisitions, helps deliver on our vision of making Hybrid IT simple for our customers,” said Antonio Neri, EVP and GM, Enterprise Group, HPE. “Through these strategic investments, we are continuing to strengthen and deepen our portfolio of next generation, software-defined, differentiated solutions that meet the new challenges our customers are facing.”
  IDC referred to the acquisition as a “home run” that “will benefit both HPE and Nimble customers alike” in one of their latest industry reports. Nimble was founded in 2007 and has approximately 1,300 employees worldwide. The company delivered revenue of $402 million in its most recent fiscal year, up 25 percent year over year.   less

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  ‘Companies must focus on education and enforcement of policies to address security issues’

  Today’s workforce is caught between two imperatives: be productive and efficient on the job and maintain the security of company data. To address data security issues, companies must focus on educating employees and enforcing policies and procedures that secure data wherever they go, without hindering productivity, according to the Dell End-User Se...  moreToday’s workforce is caught between two imperatives: be productive and efficient on the job and maintain the security of company data. To address data security issues, companies must focus on educating employees and enforcing policies and procedures that secure data wherever they go, without hindering productivity, according to the Dell End-User Security Survey.
  Dell is releasing the results of its Dell End-User Security Survey, which finds that not only are many employees likely to share confidential information, but that they are doing so without proper data security protocols in place or in mind. Survey results indicate that among the professionals that work with confidential information on a regular basis, there is a lack of understanding in the workplace regarding how confidential data should be shared and data security policies. This lack of clarity and confusion is not without merit; there are many circumstances under which it makes sense to share confidential information in order to push business initiatives forward.
  Sharing sensitive, confidential or regulated company informationThree in four employees say they would share sensitive, confidential or regulated company information under certain circumstances for a wide range of reasons including:
  
  Being directed to do so by management (43 percent)
  Sharing with a person authorized to receive it (37 percent)
  Determining that the risk to their company is very low and the potential benefit of sharing information is high (23 percent)
  Feeling it will help them do their job more effectively (22 percent)
  Feeling it will help the recipient do their job more effectively (13 percent)
  Four in five employees in financial services (81 percent) would share confidential information, and employees in education (75 percent), healthcare (68 percent) and federal government (68 percent) are also open to disclosing confidential or regulated data at alarmingly high rates.
  
  “When security becomes a case-by-case judgement call being made by the individual employee, there is no consistency or efficacy,” said Brett Hansen, vice president of Endpoint Data Security and Management at Dell. “These findings suggest employees need to be better educated about data security best practices, and companies must put procedures in place that focus first and foremost on securing data while maintaining productivity.”
  Unsafe behavior is common in the workplaceThe survey finds that when employees handle confidential data, they often do so insecurely by accessing, sharing and storing the data in unsafe ways. Twenty-four percent of respondents indicated they do so to get their job done and 18 percent say they did not know they were doing something unsafe. Only 3 percent of respondents said they had malicious intentions when conducting unsafe behaviors.
  
  Forty-five percent of employees admit to engaging in unsafe behaviors throughout the work day
  These behaviors include connecting to public Wi-Fi to access confidential information (46 percent), using personal email accounts for work (49 percent), or losing a company-issued device (17 percent)
  One in three employees (35 percent) say it is common to take corporate information with them when leaving a company
  Employees take on unnecessary risk when storing and sharing their work, with 56 percent using public cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud and others to share or back-up their work
  Forty-five percent of employees will use email to share confidential files with third-party vendors or consultants
  Employees Support Protecting Information, but Don’t Feel Empowered
  
  Struggling with the limitations of security programs The survey findings indicate that employees struggle with cybersecurity in the workplace because they do not want to see their company suffer a data breach, but they also struggle with the limitations security programs can put on their day-to-day activities and productivity.
  
  Nearly two in three employees (65 percent) feel it is their responsibility to protect confidential information, including educating themselves on possible risks and behaving in a way that protects their company
  Thirty-six percent of employees feel very confident in their knowledge of how to protect sensitive company information
  Twenty-one percent feel it is difficult to keep up with changing security guidelines and policies, and 22 percent say they are worried that someday they will do something by mistake and cause damage to their company
  Nearly two in three (63 percent) employees are required to complete cybersecurity training on protecting sensitive data. However, of those who received cybersecurity training, 18 percent still conducted unsafe behavior without realizing what they were doing was wrong, whereas 24 percent conducted unsafe behavior anyway in order to complete a task
  
  Creating simple and clear policies“While every company has different security needs, this survey shows how important it is that all companies make an effort to better un...    less

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  ‘Cloud storage has become the new battleground in the cloud price war’

  The cloud price battlefield has shifted from virtual machines (VMs) to object storage, according to the latest analysis of cloud pricing by 451 Research. The analyst firm predicts that other services, particularly databases, will undergo the same pricing pressures over the next 18 months.
  Until recently, the prices of services beyond compute held s...  moreThe cloud price battlefield has shifted from virtual machines (VMs) to object storage, according to the latest analysis of cloud pricing by 451 Research. The analyst firm predicts that other services, particularly databases, will undergo the same pricing pressures over the next 18 months.
  Until recently, the prices of services beyond compute held steady in the face of intense competition, according to 451 Research’s Cloud Price Index. Virtual machines have been the traditional battleground for price cuts as providers have sought to gain attention and differentiation. The tide has now turned, with object storage pricing declining in every region, including a drop of 14% over the past 12 months. For comparison, the cloud mainstay of VMs has dropped a relatively small 5% over the same period.
  Market maturity is leading to price cutsAnalysts believe market maturity is leading to price cuts moving beyond compute. Other factors include increasing cloud-native development and faith in the cloud model, as well as a competitive scrum to capture data migrating out of on-premises infrastructure.
  While some in the industry have speculated that cloud providers have been using cheap VMs as 'loss leaders' in their cloud portfolios, 451 Research finds that, even in the worst case, margins for VMs are at least 30%. There is little data suggesting cloud is anywhere near a commodity yet. Analysts believe the cloud market is not highly pricesensitive at this time, although naturally, end users want to make sure they are paying a reasonable price.
  First big price war outside compute“The big cloud providers appear to be playing an aggressive game of tit for tat, cutting object storage prices to avoid standing out as expensive,” said Jean Atelsek, Analyst, Digital Economics Unit at 451 Research. “This is the first time there has been a big price war outside compute, and it reflects object storage’s move into the mainstream. While price cuts are good news for cloud buyers, they are now faced with a new level of complexity when comparing providers.”
  The cloud storage battle started in Q3 2016 when 451 Research’s Digital Economics Unit identified a reduction in IBM SoftLayer’s object storage prices. Google, AWS and then Microsoft followed suit with cuts as well. The 451 Research Digital Economics Unit predicts that prices for virtual machines and object storage will continue to come down, with relational databases likely to be the next competitive front.  less

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  Majority of large company have yet to fully embrace IT Transformation

  Dell EMC announced the results of a new study conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), which revealed that a majority of senior IT leaders and decision-making managers of large companies surveyed around the world indicate their organizations have yet to fully embrace the aspects of IT Transformation needed to remain competitive. Many organizat...  moreDell EMC announced the results of a new study conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), which revealed that a majority of senior IT leaders and decision-making managers of large companies surveyed around the world indicate their organizations have yet to fully embrace the aspects of IT Transformation needed to remain competitive. Many organizations still measure application cycle times in months, if not years; have siloed infrastructures; and continue to grapple with rigid legacy architectures – all barriers to undertaking a successful digital transformation.
  While there is a clear imperative for companies to transform their legacy IT, digital transformation is becoming the driving force to making IT Transformation a top priority. However the ESG 2017 IT Transformation Maturity Curve study commissioned by Dell EMC shows 95% of survey respondents indicate their organizations are at risk of falling behind a smaller group of industry peers that are transforming their IT infrastructures, processes and delivery methods to accelerate their goals of becoming digital businesses.
  Taking advantage of digital-age opportunities“These findings mirror how the vast majority of customers are telling us they need to optimize their existing infrastructures to take advantage of digital-age opportunities,” said David Goulden, President of Dell EMC. "However, the research shows that most respondents are falling behind a small and elite set of competitors who have cracked the IT Transformation code, and they’re competing more vigorously because of it. As organizations progress in their IT Transformation investments, they can overcome the conflict between legacy IT and digital business initiatives to realize their goals, speed time to market and increase competitiveness.”
  The ESG 2017 IT Transformation Maturity Curve study was designed to understand the role that IT Transformation plays toward becoming a digital business. ESG employed a research-based, data-driven maturity model to identify different stages of IT Transformation progress and determine the degree to which global organizations have achieved those different stages, based on their responses to questions about their organizations’ on-premise IT infrastructure, processes and organizational alignment.
  Four IT Transformation maturity stagesBased on the global survey responses, the 1,000 participating organizations were segmented into the following four IT Transformation maturity stages:
  
  Stage 1 – Legacy (12%): falls short on many – if not all – of the dimensions of IT Transformation in the ESG study
  Stage 2 – Emerging (42%): showing progress in IT Transformation but having minimal deployment of modern data center technologies
  Stage 3 – Evolving (41%): showing commitment to IT Transformation and having a moderate deployment of modern data center technologies and IT delivery methods
  Stage 4 – Transformed (5%): furthest along in IT Transformation initiatives
  
  The majority of respondents (71%) agree that IT Transformation is essential to ongoing business competitiveness. Of the “Transformed” companies, 85% believe their organizations are in a "very strong" or "strong" position to compete and succeed in their market over the next few years contrasted with 43% of the least mature companies.
  “Transformed” organizationsThe “Transformed” organizations report the most progress in leveraging IT resources to speed product innovation and time to market; automating manual processes and tasks; and running IT as a profit center rather than a cost center. These companies:
  
  (96%) Exceeded revenue targets last year, more than 2X the least mature
  Are 8X more likely than the least mature organizations to report a highly cooperative relationship between IT and the business
  Made “excellent progress” running IT as a profit center rather than a cost center (7X more likely than the least mature)
  Are 7X more likely than the least mature organizations to have IT viewed by the business as a competitive differentiator
  Leverage IT resources to speed product innovation and time to market (6X more likely than the least mature organizations)
  
  Improving the agility and responsivenessAccording to ESG, the adoption of modern data center technologies, such as scale-out storage systems and converged/hyper-converged infrastructure, can improve the agility and responsiveness of infrastructure provisioning, IT project delivery and application development. The study found:
  
  54% of all respondents use converged or hyper-converged infrastructure to support applications
  58% of all respondents have adopted scale-out storage systems in some capacity
  Roughly 50% of respondents are committed to software-defined as a long-term strategy and have begun to implement, evaluate or plan for software-defined technologies
  
  According to ESG, the adoption of modern IT processes - such as self-service provisioning capabilities, running IT like a public cloud and use of DevOps methodologies - can be an attribute of a successfull...    less

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  Cyber Security is a ‘people problem’ says IISP Survey

  …but more companies say they are better prepared to deal with a breach or incident 
   
  20 April 2017: Over 80% of security professionals identify ‘people’ as the industry’s biggest challenge compared to technology and processes, according to the results of the second annual survey from The Institute of Information Security Professionals (I...  more…but more companies say they are better prepared to deal with a breach or incident 
   
  20 April 2017: Over 80% of security professionals identify ‘people’ as the industry’s biggest challenge compared to technology and processes, according to the results of the second annual survey from The Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP). The survey also indicates that while 60% of respondents still feel that investment is not keeping pace with threat levels, there was a modest 5% increase in businesses that feel better placed to deal with a breach or incident if it happens. In real terms, spending does appear to be on the rise with 70% of companies seeing an increase in budget, up from 67% and only 7% reporting a reduction, which is down from 12% last year. 
   
  While people have long been seen as the weakest link in IT security through lack of risk awareness and good security practice, the people problem also includes the skills shortage at a technical level as well as the risk from senior business stakeholders making poor critical decisions around strategy and budgets. Interestingly, the increase in reported skills shortages contrasts with a decrease in those reporting a lack of experience being a market factor. This suggests that as the industry matures the shortage of experienced, senior managerial professionals will reduce and the problem will be felt most acutely in the hands-on technical disciplines. 
   
  “The survey highlights the continued need for industry, government, academia and professional organisations like the IISP to continue to work hard to attract new entrants and younger people into the industry,” said Piers Wilson, author of the report and Director at the IISP. “This year, over 75% of respondents had a degree and over a third had a post graduate Masters Degree – an increase of over 5%, reflecting the increasing number of university programmes. While this is very encouraging, we also need to develop other routes into the industry to harness talent from diverse backgrounds.”
   
  “It is still the case that technical IT security disciplines don't always get their share of respect, yet these are the people at the front line defending systems and companies from attack and keeping one step ahead of the cyber criminals,” adds Wilson.
   
  Despite a lack of wider recognition, the security industry is increasingly lucrative and provides a strong career path for those with the right skills and abilities. Some three-quarters of respondents reported positive job and career prospects, with 28.6% earning between £50 to £75k and almost 20% on salaries over £100k. 
   
  “The challenges around hiring and retention are putting an upward pressure on salaries,” says Piers Wilson. “But while money and career opportunities were cited as the most common reasons for taking and leaving jobs, other factors include variety of work, management and company culture, research and learning and autonomy.” 
   
  “Many of the figures in this year’s survey show a step in the right direction,” says Piers Wilson, “The continuing high frequency of cases hitting the headlines and the regulatory pressures, including from GDPR, are leading to a corresponding increase in investment and a drive for increased skill, experience, education and professionalism. However, there is still a lot of work to do and we need to redouble our efforts to meet the challenge of increasingly sophisticated threats.”
   
  Along with surveying its diverse membership of over 2,500 people, this time the IISP opened the survey up to non-member security professionals. The respondents to the survey represent a wide range of ages, experience and industry sectors and so provide a very accurate picture of the state of UK businesses in terms of skills shortage issues, the state of security preparedness and risk awareness.
   
  A copy of the IISP white paper on the results of the survey is available here: https://www.iisp.org/imis15/iisp/About_Us/IISP_Media/iispv2/About_us/IISP.aspx?hkey=866b64e2-77f2-4159-9acd-134c01ae54cf.   less

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  Consulting M&A volumes reach a nine-year high, despite turbulent political backdrop

  19/Apr/2017 2016 reached a nine-year high in consulting M&A volumes, according to Equiteq’s Global Consulting Mergers & Acquisitions Report 2017. Despite deal activity falling in the quarter prior to the US Presidential election and the UK’s Brexit vote, deal volumes were up 1%.
  Outperforming the S&P 500, the strength of the consulting ...  more19/Apr/2017 2016 reached a nine-year high in consulting M&A volumes, according to Equiteq’s Global Consulting Mergers & Acquisitions Report 2017. Despite deal activity falling in the quarter prior to the US Presidential election and the UK’s Brexit vote, deal volumes were up 1%.
  Outperforming the S&P 500, the strength of the consulting sector was further demonstrated as the Equiteq Consulting Share Price Index ended 2016 up 14%, a 10-year high.
  The top consulting segments for deal activity were the rapidly evolving Management Consulting, IT Services and Media segments. Management Consulting saw a 2% growth in deal volumes and a huge 32% increase in the share-price index.
  David Jorgenson, Equiteq CEO, commented:
  ‘We are seeing unprecedented diversification amongst acquirers of knowledge -led businesses such as Management Consultants, Media Agencies, IT Services, Engineering Consultants and HR Consulting. As a result this is driving convergence between consulting sectors and creating hybrid business models with creative, technology consulting and managed services. This convergence trend - driven by digital disruption, changing client demands and the search for growth - is blurring traditional boundaries.’
  Regionally, 44% of all deals took place in North America, which enjoyed the highest M&A value, although Europe (38% of deals) and Asia-Pacific (9% of deals) enjoyed stronger M&A growth than North America. Deal activity was particularly robust in the UK where the number of completed transactions increased by 20% over the year.
  Cross-border deal activity remained strong, highlighting the global nature of M&A activity in consulting. Despite some major political upheavals, cross-border deal activity accounted for 28% of all deal volumes, up from 27% in 2015.
  Commenting on the outlook for 2017, Jorgenson continues:
  ‘The new year has already seen high-profile deals across segments of the consulting market, as well as strong deal activity amongst high-profile PE investors. We expect that this robust demand for M&A will continue over the next twelve months.’
  The Global Consulting M&A Report 2017 is available to download for free by clicking on the links below:
  Global Consulting M&A Report 2017 – all sectors
  Global Management Consulting M&A Report 2017
  Global IT Services M&A Report 2017
  Global Media Agencies M&A Report 2017
  Global Engineering Consulting M&A Report 2017
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  Microsoft acquires Intentional Software

  Microsoft acquires Intentional Software. Intentional Software is a company that has been focused on creating a platform for a new generation of team productivity apps.
  Intentional Software was founded in 2002 by Charles Simonyi, a pioneer in the area of intentional programming. The company was initially focused on making programming less complicate...  moreMicrosoft acquires Intentional Software. Intentional Software is a company that has been focused on creating a platform for a new generation of team productivity apps.
  Intentional Software was founded in 2002 by Charles Simonyi, a pioneer in the area of intentional programming. The company was initially focused on making programming less complicated. Over the past few years, Intentional Software has been focussing on the development of productivity scenarios for the future workforce. Simonyi has worked at Microsoft before and oversaw the creation of some of Microsoft’s productivity applications, such as Excel and Word.
  Being productive in an information-rich world“This acquisition will build on the work we’re already doing to deliver the tools necessary to be productive in an information-rich world. Intentional Software’s technology and talent will enhance our existing capabilities and strengthen our ability to add new tools and services to Microsoft’s robust productivity offering. We’re excited about the company’s work on productivity applications, especially given our focus of putting people at the center of experiences and our continued effort to reimagine collaboration”, Rajesh Jha, Executive Vice President, Office Product Group at Microsoft, wrote in a blogpost. 
  The closing of the acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.  less

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  ITWNET and IVI announce collaboration to develop multi-discipline training for IT professionals based on IT-CMF

    Please login or register and download the full press release and the model presentation in pdf Press release ITWNET AND IVI ANNOUNCE NEW TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION MODEL   Over almost 12 months ITWNET and IVI have collaborated on a key initiative to bring to the IT practitioners worldwide a new and exciting multi-discipline I...  more  Please login or register and download the full press release and the model presentation in pdf Press release ITWNET AND IVI ANNOUNCE NEW TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION MODEL   Over almost 12 months ITWNET and IVI have collaborated on a key initiative to bring to the IT practitioners worldwide a new and exciting multi-discipline IT professional career roadmap based on the ITCMF reference model. The progress brought both organizations to the point where a collaboration agreement was signed.  Now the ITWNET community will work hand in hand with IVI researchers to bring the most up-to-date, future proof and global approach to IT professional training and certification today.   Mr. Martin Delaney (https://ie.linkedin.com/in/martin-delaney-6615048), General Manager and Technology Leader for IVI research said: ‘The progress that IVI have delivered over the past 10 years in the development of IT CMF and growth in awareness and use will be greatly accelerated with this developing relationship with ITWNET. We live in exciting fast moving technology times – our DIGITAL era, and more than ever organisations and IT professionals need to be supplied with the tools and knowledge to excel. IVI and ITWNET will bring that Digital knowledge’.    Mr. Alejandro Debenedet (https://nl.linkedin.com/in/adebenedet), Managing Director of ITWNET INTERNATIONAL said: “This is a big step forward towards realising our goal to make every IT professional more successful.  We are delighted to work together with Martin and his excellent team of professionals and to develop this complete and up-to-date career development model for the benefit of the global IT ecosystem.  It is a dream come true for me personally since I have been closely related to ITCMF since 2009. We thank IVI for this vote of trust and we hope to deliver the best training experience possible together with our community, our partners and everyone that will join to make it a success”.             Multi-discipline IT Professional career development roadmap - BASED ON ITCMF REFERENCE MODEL Today’s IT is living in exiting times and needs a deep transformation.  At the center of this effort is the IT professional who needs to engage in new ways of working; in a short period of time; and at the least cost possible.  The IT professional also needs to update his knowledge in full, not in isolation with  a particular best practice or framework but from multiple bodies of knowledge.  Therefore silos of information are OUT and an holistic approach to acquiring knowledge is IN.  On the other side we have the proliferation of, and easy accessibility to, a growing range of digital technologies that is profoundly transforming the strategic context of the organization and its competitive environment. This range of technologies refers to social, mobile, analytics, cloud, and internet of things (SMACT), among others. Through combining the capabilities of these digital technologies with existing competences, the organization is afforded opportunities to offer exciting new value propositions. Up to date, a big effort was needed to cover all the training needs to be ready to face these challenge times.  ITWNET and IVI, with the input of their professional network, community and researchers, have articulated a complete multi-discipline IT professional career roadmap that presents all required knowledge from a single, complete and renowned model: ITCMF. Established more than 10 ago,, with multi-million dollars research investment, more than 600 companies all over the world applying its concepts and its benchmarking data, IT CMF has proven to be a one of a kind in the  “me too” world of best practices, frameworks and assessment tools. The IT CMF training roadmap covers all the needs for training, recognizes acquired knowledge and provides for the digital transformation currently happening. IT CMF training is based in IT CMF core capabilities, which (clustered or individually) provide the backbone of knowledge needed by the IT professional today to drive the IT service organization into delivering business value.  All in one training scheme, all within IT CMF, the one stop shop for all IT capabilities that enable the digital transformation. To know more and apply to become an accredited training organization, please contact partners@itwnet.com         About ITWNET ITWNET is the fastest growing global community for IT Managers and Professionals. Its vision is to fill the gap for a truly global, independent and transparent IT community that can accommodate the needs and expectations of the members, to be the center of collaboration and contribution of IT professionals for IT professionals. Now is the right time to bring down the knowledge and communities silos and divisions. “Eventually everything connects”, together we will all create a better,...    less

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  ITWNET NXTTCH - The ITWNET International Annual Event in its second edition

   
  
   
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  NXTTCH (pronounced as Next Tech) is the first premium event in Europe that connects the corporate world to all kinds of disruptive technologies. NXTTCH takes place at June 27 at Bimhuis in Amsterdam.
   
  Many companies are reaching out to start-ups that challenge the current business models. NXTTCH visitors are innovators that want to take this to the next level.
   
  Over the next years we will witness a struggle to find the right business cases, to find ways to successfully transform your organization and yourself into a new era where co-creation and permanent beta will be central.
   
  We are entering a next phase of the Internet where it is about BITS in ATOMS. Our physical world will be digitized rapidly. Where the last 20 years digitisation was key for media and information, this time our other side of our economy will be digitized with high velocity. Everything.
   
  Is our society ready for this? Is your organization ready? Are you ready? NXTTCH will challenge you. With experiences, with in-depth debates and with a focus on getting down to the business case of things.
   
  
  In parallel to NXTTCH we are organizing an international VIP Conference for CIOs, IT Executives and Digital Leaders: CIOCITY, the VIP congress for more than 400 international CIOs and IT Executives at Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.
   
  Please register and participate on our international event at http://www.nxttch.com 
  For partnering and sponsorship opportunities please email us at partners@itwnet.com
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  Oracle acquires Wercker

  Oracle announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wercker. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
  Wercker allows organizations and their development teams to achieve continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) goals with micro-services and Docker. Wercker delivers a container-centric and cloud-nat...  moreOracle announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wercker. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
  Wercker allows organizations and their development teams to achieve continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) goals with micro-services and Docker. Wercker delivers a container-centric and cloud-native automation platform, that is comprised of their local command line interface (CLI), online SaaS platform and API.
  Focussing on innovating and building great products“Through our focus on container lifecycle management, Wercker’s mission has always been to enable developers to focus on what matters most: innovating and building great products and applications in a simple, repeatable and reliable way. Wercker empowers organizations and their development teams to achieve continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) goals with micro-services and Docker. This is brought to life through our container-centric and cloud-native automation platform comprised of our local command line interface (CLI), online SaaS platform and API”, Micha Hernandez van Leuffen, founder and CEO at Wercker, wrote in a blogpost.
  “With this in mind, I am excited to share that Oracle today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wercker. Wercker’s Docker-based platform has a strong, rapidly growing user base as companies, large and small, transition to container-based workloads. Developers will now have access to a strong Docker-based portfolio as part of Oracle PaaS and IaaS. We are excited to join Oracle and bring even more value to our customers as part of Oracle’s cloud computing platform.”
  Customary closing conditionsThe proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Until the transaction closes, both Oracle and Wercker will continue to operate independently.  less

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  ‘Spending on IT infrastructure for public cloud will show double-digit growth in 2017’

  The total spending on IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switches) for deployment in cloud environments will increase 15.3% year over year in 2017 to $41.7 billion, according to International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker. Public cloud datacenters will account for the ma...  moreThe total spending on IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switches) for deployment in cloud environments will increase 15.3% year over year in 2017 to $41.7 billion, according to International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker. Public cloud datacenters will account for the majority of this spending, 60.5%, while off-premises private cloud environments will represent 14.9% of spending. On-premises private clouds will account for 62.3% of spending on private cloud IT infrastructure and will grow 13.1% year over year in 2017.
  Investments in cloud IT infrastructure will increase across all regions while the majority of regions expect to see a reduction in spending on non-cloud deployments across all three technology segment. Overall, worldwide spending on traditional, non-cloud, IT infrastructure will decline 5.3% in 2017. However, it will still account for the largest share, 57.9%, of end user spending. All figures above exclude double counting between server and storage.
  Fastest growth for Ethernet switches In cloud environments, Ethernet switches will be the fastest growing technology segment at 21.8% year over year growth in 2017, while spending on servers and enterprise storage will grow 17.9% and 10.7%, respectively. (These growth rates include double counting between server and storage to fully represent each of the technology segments). An important factor in the slowdown of spending on enterprise storage is the weakness in the external storage segment amid continuous adoption of server-based and software-defined storage solutions. In all three segments, spending on IT infrastructure deployed off-premises will be growing faster than spending on on-premises environments.
  Long term, IDC expects spending on off-premises cloud IT infrastructure will grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7%, reaching $47.2 billion in 2021. Public cloud datacenters will account for 80.4% of this amount. Combined with on-premises private cloud, overall spending on cloud IT infrastructure will grow at an 11.4% CAGR and will surpass spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure by 2020. Spending on on-premises private cloud IT infrastructure will grow at a 10.3% CAGR, while spending on non-cloud IT (on-premises and off-premises combined) will decline at a 3% CAGR during the same period.
  
  Return to double-digit growth"After the slowdown seen in 2016, we expect to see spending on IT infrastructure for public cloud deployments return to double-digit growth in 2017," said Natalya Yezhkova, research director, Storage Systems. "Growing demand for access to agile IT resources and proliferation of next generation workloads will continue driving adoption of cloud-based services. In turn, this move leads to a shift in IT infrastructure spending from traditional enterprise on-premises deployments to datacenters delivering cloud services and corporate private clouds."  less

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