Node4 provides Private Cloud Platform for EMiR Software

Founded in 1994, EMiR Software (Solutions in IT) is a market leader in specialist business management software. Available as an on-premises or hosted solution, EMiR is designed for electrical and mechanical engineering businesses that install and service large-scale industrial and commercial equipment, including motors, pumps, gearboxes, compressors, control panels, wind turbines and variable speed drives. 

EMiR supports the UK's vital infrastructure. In fact 45% of the UK membership of the Association Electrical & Mechanical Trades have purchased EMiR Software. These include hospitals, power stations, chemical plants, food manufacturing and utility companies. Integral to operations, EMiR shapes how electrical and mechanical engineering businesses service their client bases. At its core, EMiR empowers electrical and mechanical engineers to manage and resource all aspects of their complex and challenging business needs. It covers system build, installation and commissioning, repairs and servicing, sales and marketing, distribution and financial systems. 

The Challenge

Initially, EMiR was installed directly onto servers at client locations. However, around five years ago, the company developed a cloud-based version of its software for customers that would prefer a managed service offering.  

Gary Downes, Managing Director at EMiR Software, explains, “We developed a solution that allowed customers to access their own dedicated virtual server, or fleet of virtual servers, via a private cloud platform. We installed our EMiR software and Microsoft Office in each customer environment and offered the option to include any other software that clients might require. Customers would then pay a monthly per-user fee. In return, we’d free them from day-to-day system admin responsibilities and manage the entire environment — delivering first-line hardware support and 24/7 x 365 availability.” 

This arrangement worked very well for some time. But as EMiR Software’s business and solution continued to develop, the company started to outgrow its original IT services provider. 

“The amount of unscheduled downtime and service interruptions increased to an unacceptable level,” recalls Gary. “It impacted our infrastructure and caused problems for our clients — problems that we had no control over and could not fix directly. It was extremely challenging for us, and it was apparent that our clients were also frustrated. We needed to act decisively and find a new IT provider.” 

The Solution

An IT partner that listens

Gary and his team chose Node4 after assessing several cloud service providers, noting that Node4 stood out straight away in terms of pricing, support, speed, performance and flexibility. “Node4 had the right mix of technical and commercial experience, and this instilled confidence from the first meeting,” he remembers. “They also listened to us and learned about the intricacies of our operations. They didn’t try to push us into an ill-fitting box like many vendors. Instead, they devised a bespoke solution and pricing structure that matched how we serviced and billed our customers.” 

Improved resiliency, proactive monitoring and enhanced security 

Following a seamless migration, all EMiR Software’s managed service customers have been relocated to virtual servers in one of Node4’s data centres. Customers still have a managed private cloud environment containing EMiR, Microsoft Office and any other software they’d like to run on their networks. But with Node4 on board, customers now benefit from improved performance and resiliency that come from superior backup, recovery, antivirus protection and security functionality. 

“Node4’s network monitoring capabilities are on a totally different level, too,” notes Gary. “We get automated hardware, software and key service alerts — plus daily performance reports for each server. And we’re immediately notified about potential IT security breaches or cyber threats. Node4 deals with these before customers are even aware of an issue. It’s all extremely impressive, proactive and responsive — and it makes our lives a hundred times easier.”

The Results

Round-the-clock support 

Node4’s private cloud platform delivers the 24/7 x 365 support EMiR Software and its clients had always needed. “Although our previous provider had out-of-hours alerting, they didn’t start working on any fixes until 8 am the following morning,” Gary recounts. 

“By contrast, with Node4, the alerts are monitored and dealt with round the clock, so issues never escalate or cause outages.” 

Speed and performance gains

In addition, Gary continues to be impressed by the superior speed and performance of Node4’s infrastructure: “Our clients have noticed too, which we’re delighted about. These days, when I demo the cloud-based version of EMiR to clients still using their own hardware, they are always blown away. This makes it much more certain that they’ll migrate to the cloud-based version when their current infrastructure reaches end-of-life.”

Delivering flexibility and agility 

Node4’s public cloud infrastructure also gives Gary and his team much more direct control over their servers. “This allows us to add users, licences, RAM, or disk capacity ourselves,” comments Gary. “Administrative changes that used to take our provider around 48 hours to deal with are now handled by us within an hour. We don’t need to raise a ticket and wait for our provider to respond. This makes for more efficient operations and enables us to deliver a very smooth customer experience.” 

Summing up, Gary offers a snapshot of how life has changed since he engaged Node4: “The relationship with our previous provider was very stressful — we felt like we were moaning all the time, which isn’t a good place for anyone to be. That’s all changed now, and we have a very settled, positive relationship with Node4.”

He concludes: “Having Node4 as our trusted IT provider and partner means we’re more confident when promoting the benefits of our cloud-based solution. We’ve also been able to take on more of a leadership and educational role — which helps our sales and marketing efforts and elevates our standing within our sector. For all these reasons, I believe we have built a strong foundation that will enable our business to continue growing and evolving.”

Veeam Announces ProPartner Award Winners for 2022 in UK&I

LONDON, UK – 28 March 2023: Veeam® Software, the leader in Modern Data Protection, has announced the winners of the Veeam ProPartner Awards for 2022 in the United Kingdom and Ireland (UK&I). The awards are held annually to reward the outstanding success and commitment of Veeam ProPartner Value-Added Resellers (VAR) and Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) partners. As a partner-centric organisation, Veeam recognises partners that leveraged customer support and Veeam expertise to deliver Modern Data Protection in increasingly complex IT environments so that the most diverse workload types, data, and applications are protected.

Alex Walsh, Channel & Alliances Director UK&I at Veeam, explained: “2022 added to the challenges businesses were already facing as they emerged from the global pandemic. Chief among them was the ever-present and rising incidence of ransomware attacks, that left only 24% of UK&I organisations unaffected. With secure, immutable backups the last line of defence against ransomware, protecting enterprise IT across all ecosystems is essential to keep businesses running.”

“Satisfying the myriad demands modern business processes and exposures place upon our customers needs a multi-faceted network of ProPartners with a rich variety of competencies, and Veeam has the best in the business. Their skills, underpinned by the Veeam Data Platform – a single solution to protect Cloud, Virtual, Physical, SaaS and Kubernetes applications – gives customers the resilience, availability and business outcomes they need. I am proud of our fantastic local ProPartner network, without whom we would not enjoy the success that we do. As a 100% channel-focused organisation, our UK&I ProPartner Award winners have delivered exceptional results through close collaboration in 2022. It is my pleasure to thank them for their loyalty, excellence and trust in Veeam.”

The following best performing Veeam partners received honours for the 2022 Veeam ProPartner Awards:

•         The Fastest Growth of the Year, UK&I: 11:11 Systems

For partners (VARs or VCSPs) who have demonstrated the highest growth in Veeam sales during 2022.

•         The Most Significant Project of the Year, UK&I: Computacenter UK

For a partner (VAR/VCSP) who identified, managed, and successfully closed the largest project in 2022.

•         VCSP Partner of the Year, UK&I: Central Technology

For partners who made a great contribution to the popularisation of cloud technologies in 2022 and are meeting the following requirements – biggest points consumption growth, certifications, product diversity.

•         Subscription Reselling Partner of the Year, UK&I: Bytes Software Services

For partners who closed the greatest number of subscription deals in 2022.  

•         Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Partner of the Year, UK&I: 11:11 Systems

For partners who closed the most successful Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 deals in 2022. 

•         Channel Marketing Performance of the Year, UK&I: Phoenix Software

For the partner (VCSP, VAR, VASP) who demonstrated great marketing performance promoting Veeam.

•         Public Sector Partner of the Year, UK&I: Boxxe Limited

For partners who closed the most public sector deals in 2022.

•         Cloud Project of the Year, UK&I: AWS

For the Cloud Alliance partner that has driven the highest levels of Veeam business in 2022.

•         Hybrid Partner of the Year, UK&I: Eir Evo

For the partner who showed the best performance in both VCSP and VAR business.

•         Commercial Partner of the Year, UK&I: Autodata Products Ltd

For partners who closed the greatest number of COM deals in 2022.

•         Enterprise Partner of the Year, UK&I: Softcat Ltd UK

For the partner who demonstrated the best ENT delivery.

•         Distribution Partner of the Year, UK&I: TD Synnex UK

For the top performing distributor in the UK and Ireland.

•         Cloud Aggregation Partner of the Year, UK&I: TD Synnex UK

For the top performing aggregator in the UK and Ireland.

•         Velocity Sales Partner of the Year, UK&I: CCS Media Ltd

For the partner who demonstrated the best SMB delivery.

Endace and Niagara Networks Partner to Provide Superior Network Visibility and Accelerated Investigation Response Times

Technical partnership eliminates blind spots and provides continuous packet capture for faster incident resolution in virtual, hybrid, and cloud networks

AUSTIN, Texas and AUCKLAND, New Zealand – March 28, 2023 – Endace and Niagara Networks today announced a partnership that combines Endace’s scalable, always-on packet capture with Niagara Networks’ complete visibility solutions. The combination of the two technologies gives NetOps and SecOps teams the confidence to quickly investigate and resolve even the most complex incidents in physical and cloud environments.

Niagara Networks’ TAP and packet broker solutions aggregate network traffic and enhance workflow solutions, delivering real-time, end-to-end network visibility. The EndaceProbe Analytics Platform™ accurately records weeks or months of network traffic, providing one-click access to granular packet data for deep forensic analysis.

When enterprises connect Niagara Networks’ packet broker and TAP products to EndaceProbes, traffic can be quickly and easily aggregated, filtered, deduplicated, decrypted, and delivered to EndaceProbes for recording, inspection, and analysis. EndaceProbe’s Pivot-to-Vision API allows powerful, forensic analysis at microsecond detail, fast-tracking threat resolution.

“Teaming Endace’s continuous packet capture with Niagara Networks’ enterprise-wide visibility solutions gives organizations the power to eliminate blind spots in any network architecture and accelerate investigation and response to network threats,” said Yigal Amram, VP Global Sales and Business Development at Niagara Networks.

“Analysts can drill down from alerts or performance issues in their security and performance monitoring tools and in a single click, get to the relevant packet data in EndaceVision – and then review and extract the traffic from recorded network history,” said Cary Wright, VP Product for Endace. “By directing and processing traffic with Niagara Networks solutions before it is recorded by EndaceProbes, NetOps and SecOps teams gain full network visibility and access to the definitive evidence they need to respond to incidents faster, more accurately, and more confidently.”

38% of organisations hit with ransomware in 2022 were repeat victims

Highlights:

•       Barracuda international survey finds 73% of organisations experienced a successful ransomware attack in 2022 — 38% were hit more than once.

•       42% of those hit three times or more paid the ransom to restore encrypted data — compared to 31% of victims hit just once.

•       69% of ransomware attacks began with an email.

•       27% of organisations feel underprepared to tackle ransomware.

CAMPBELL, Calif., (MARCH 28, 2023) —  Barracuda Networks, Inc., a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-first security solutions, today published its 2023 Ransomware Insights report, which shows that 73% of the organisations surveyed report being hit with at least one successful ransomware attack in 2022 — and 38% say they were hit twice or more. The organisations that were hit multiple times were more likely to say they’d paid the ransom — 42% of those hit three times or more paid the ransom to restore encrypted data, compared to 31% of victims of a single attack. They were also less likely to use a data backup system to help them recover.

The survey, conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Barracuda, questioned IT professionals from frontline to the most senior roles at companies with 100 to 2,500 employees, across a range of industries in the U.S. and EMEA and APAC countries.

There were significant variations in the industries targeted by ransomware. For example, 98% of consumer services and 85% of energy, oil/gas, and utility organisations experienced at least one ransomware attack. The energy, oil/gas, and utility industry was also the most likely, at 53%, to report two or more successful ransomware incidents.

The findings show that for 69% of organisations, the ransomware attack started with a malicious email, such as a phishing email designed to steal credentials that would allow the attackers to breach the network. Web applications and traffic are in second place and represent an area of growing risk as part of an ever-expanding threat surface.

Organisations with cyber insurance were more likely to be affected by ransomware — 77% of organizations with cyber insurance were hit with at least one successful ransomware attack, compared to 65% without cyber insurance.

The research also found that 27% of the organisations surveyed feel they are not fully prepared to deal with a ransomware attack.

“The number of organisations affected by ransomware in 2022 likely reflects the widespread availability of low cost, accessible attack tools through ransomware-as-a-service offerings,” said Fleming Shi, CTO, Barracuda. “The relatively high proportion of repeat victims suggests that security gaps are not fully addressed after the first incident. The security industry has an essential role to play in helping organisations to defend themselves against ransomware, through deep, multilayered security technologies that include advanced email protection and backup as well as threat hunting and extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities to stop malicious activity in its tracks.”