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Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 85.2 million units in the second quarter of 2011, a 2.3 percent increase from the same period last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. “After strong growth in shipments of consumer PCs for four years, driven by strong demand for mini-notebooks and low-priced consumer notebooks, the market is shifting to modest, but steady growth. The slow overall growth indicates that the PC market is still in a period of adjustment, which began in the second half of 2010.” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
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Fortinet, a leading network security provider and the worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions – announced the introduction of FortiClient, an endpoint software agent that enables organizations to deploy business practices requiring secure remote access connectivity for its distributed and mobile workforce, contractors and partners. As an all-inclusive remote access security solution, FortiClient optimizes an organization’s security posture, helps organizations meet regulatory and legal requirements and helps enforce corporate compliance policies to prevent unauthorized devices from accessing the corporate network.
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Juniper Networks today announced two key appointments to its operations team. Bask Iyer has been appointed as senior vice president and chief information officer (CIO) and Martin J. Garvin has been appointed senior vice president of manufacturing operations. Iyer joins Juniper Networks from Honeywell, where he most recently served as company-wide CIO and a member of the leadership team driving its IT vision, strategy and operating plan. While, Garvin most recently served as senior vice president and chief procurement officer at Dell, where he was responsible for the strategic leadership and operation of Dell’s global supply chain. Read More…

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Cisco introduced the infusion of multiple innovations into its flagship Catalyst 6500 Series Switches, the most widely deployed network switches on earth. The new innovations will provide Catalyst 6500 with the capability to evolve the current network infrastructure for the coming decade’s proliferation of connected devices, growth of video traffic, cloud computing business models and increasingly mobile workforces–without requiring “rip and replace” upgrades. Awarded more than 500 patents, the Catalyst 6500 has been the de facto industry standard switching platform at the heart of the world’s campus, data center, WAN, and Metro Ethernet networks since its introduction in 1999 and has a $42 billion installed base, nearly 700,000 systems/110 million ports deployed and more than 25,000 customers worldwide.
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ComGuard, a leading distributor for IT security products and solutions in the region supported the 3rd Annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Applied Computing (URC 2011) organized recently by Zayed University in Dubai, which was inaugurated by His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan is the President of Zayed University, and also the Chancellor of the United Arab Emirates University and the Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology. In the keynote speech, His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan stressed the importance of research, development, and innovation in building a knowledge-based economy. He encouraged the efforts of Zayed University to be at forefront of research programs and appreciated the initiatives such as doctorate programs and research conferences.Read More…

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Western Digital today announced that its newest generation of the popular My Book Studio external hard drives are designed for use with Mac computers and Apple Time Machine. Now available with a 3 TB storage capacity, the new design features a brushed aluminum casing to match the appearance of a Mac computer, and also serves to keep the drive cool while in use. The aluminum exterior, combined with its WD Caviar Green drives, eliminates the need for an internal fan to reduce drive noise and extend the life of the drive. Although formatted for Mac computers, the My Book Studio external hard drives can also be reformatted for PCs. Read More…

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Sophos announced that it has completed its acquisition of network security vendor Astaro. This acquisition will allow Sophos to deliver coordinated, best-in-class threat and data protection offerings from every endpoint to any network boundary. Organizations today face new challenges in protecting users and IT infrastructure from complex and targeted security threats; especially those that gain entry from across the Web or through new applications. As workforces become distributed across multiple offices, including the home, even basic security controls have become hard to update and enforce. Through this acquisition, Sophos will address the need for security solutions that provide threat and policy protection no matter where the user or company data resides.
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ComGuard, a leading value added distributor for IT security products and solutions signs up with GFI Software to distribute its wide portfolio of products and solutions across the Middle East region. ComGuard will distribute the GFI web monitoring, and a range of network solutions including a vulnerability scanner, software for patch and log management and various monitoring, web and e-mail security solutions such as virus and spam filters, and endpoint security products. And, it will work with its channel partners to identify sales opportunities for GFI products and solutions that would address the business challenges of end users.
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NEC announced the availability of its virtualized unified communications and contact center solution with latest release of Business ConneCT, that ooffers enriched Unified Communications, Contact Center and Operator Attendant functionality, while the support of virtual environments based on VMware vSphere and Marathon everRun MX helps customer organisations to increase availability and utilize their IT resources more efficiently. Business ConneCT (BCT) is proven and appreciated in a multitude of deployments around the globe and is available as one fully integrated solution across the full range of NEC’s UNIVERGE SV8000 and iS3000/SIP@Net communication platforms.Read More…

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As the market for mobile computing devices exploded in past few years and saw the landscape of IT changing faster than expected, Samsung, stood tall as it increased its sales by more than 183 per cent in the first quarter of this year. The market share of Samsung’s notebooks grew more than 18 % in the UAE in 2011 compared to the first quarter of 2010 where the overall market share is currently registered at 12 per cent. The Middle East is a strategic region for Samsung and notebook sales are expected to increase due to an increasing trend in desktop replacement.Read More…

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Tech Access, the value-added IT distributor in the region for Oracle, NetApp, HDS, and Symantec, launched first of its kind in the premium Partner Loyalty Program. The Partner Loyalty Program provides the partners with a complete experience. TechAccess partners will have a chance to experience best of both worlds; business and leisure. From a Formula 1 race to an international business conference or A five star Mediterranean cruise experience or a Romantic gateway to Maldives. The TechAccess Partner Loyalty Program covers it all.Read More…

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IDC raised its shipment forecast for 2011 to 53.5 million units from a previous projection of 50.4 million units. Apple’s iPad and the recently introduced iPad 2 continue to dominate the media tablet market, as other vendors have had a more difficult time finding market acceptance for their products. Mobile phone vendors, such as Samsung and Motorola, who have focused their distribution through the telco carriers, found moderate success with their media tablets, but sales were largely stymied by many consumers’ unwillingness to sign up for the 3G/4G data plans that the carriers typically require along with these devices.
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