The UK is now one of the top five global hot spots for communication fraud - including telephone hacking - which is estimated to be running at up to $80 billion worldwide.

According to the latest research from The Communication Fraud Control Association (www.cfca.org) the UK has joined Cuba, the Philippines, Lichtenstein and India where the biggest outbreaks are concentrated, with problems continuing to escalate.

As exclusive UK suppliers of Control Phreak, a fully automatic PBX firewall which stops telephone hackers from making expensive international calls, distributors Nimans and Rocom claim to be at the forefront of attempts to contain outbreaks of telephone hacking in the UK.

Chief Architect, Roger Ansin, who is MD of The Callista Group, teamed-up with Nimans and Rocom last year to launch the latest version of Control Phreak, which took five years to develop. It now comes complete with an integrated Proxy Server which only allows authorised access to PBX programming.

According to Ansin, ‘phreaking' is now masterminded by organised criminals and terrorist groups to raise illicit funds. He cites links to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in India where it is thought that a gang, over a three year period, made $55m from unauthorised calls to fund their activities.

Ansin commented: "A phone system is a vital business asset but it's also one of the most vulnerable. Phone hackers can breach security in milliseconds. Control Phreak provides total around-the-clock protection, automatically detecting and killing any illegal activity."

Control Phreak works by making a phone system invisible to hackers. The technology currently works with several leading telephone systems such as Panasonic, Samsung and Siemens - with other solutions available from Nimans for all telephone systems.

Nimans says a free demonstration licence is available for resellers along with two videos to show their customers.

Despite optimistic outlook, survey of 550 IT professionals reveals IT departments are also braced to meet challenges of compliance, integration and staffing issues this year

• Top priorities of IT departments are security (46%) and strategic projects (44%)
• But 50% say the helpdesk and supporting end users takes up most of their time
• 80% of IT teams support at least three sites; but 62% still rely on desk-side visits to manage their IT estate

London, UK - 11th March 2010 - Strategic projects, simplifying the delivery of IT services and driving efficiencies into the IT department are the top three goals of UK IT professionals in 2010, according to a new research report from Kaseya. The study of 550 IT professionals, available to download today at http://www.itsurvey.eu/thebusinessofit , also highlights the key challenges facing UK IT departments this year, with the top three issues cited as: integration (43%), staffing (37%) and compliance (34%).

Challenges in 2009
Kaseya's report, Understanding the Business of IT, also looked back over the past 12 months to uncover the key pain points of IT professionals in 2009. These were managing increasingly complex infrastructures (39%); justifying IT spend to the board; and coping with demanding end users (36%). Over half (59%) of IT professionals also experienced at least one critical issue in 2009, with 26% handling a virus attack and 24% the theft of a PC or laptop.

What takes up the IT department's time
When asked about the tasks that take up most of their time, there was a clear winner among IT professionals, with 50% highlighting the helpdesk and supporting end users. The number of dispersed sites and the way they manage the IT estate is another drain on resources. Four out of five (80%) of IT professionals support end users in at least three locations and 62% rely on desk-side visits to manage their IT estates. The survey also reveals a lack of integrated management processes, with 24% mainly managing their IT estate manually, and 50% using a wide variety of different point solutions. Only 15% use a centralised systems management tool.

The perceived value of IT to the organisation
However, the study does reveal some more positive results, with as many as 82% of IT professionals believing the IT department is valued by the organisation, and 41% of these saying their work is valued a lot. However, there are stark differences between vertical sectors. Perceived value is high within education (88%), manufacturing and engineering (84%) and financial services 83%, but this is a marked contrast to those working in local government (67%) and transport and travel (68%).

Phil Sansom, Vice President UK Sales, Kaseya comments: "IT professionals are keen to deliver more strategic projects that benefit their organisation, but are caught up with managing increasingly complex infrastructures and carrying out day to day tasks to keep the IT cogs turning. Faced with staffing issues, dispersed locations and ever-demanding end users, it's no wonder that driving efficiencies into the IT department is a key goal. However, by adopting a more centralised approach to IT systems management, using automated processes and remote control, IT teams can take care of key tasks and processes so they can save valuable time and money to focus on the bigger projects."

The Kaseya report, Understanding the Business of IT, presents the findings of a survey of 550 IT professionals, alongside the results of two focus groups with private and public sector IT managers. It provides analysis of the research and offers practical advice and recommendations to help IT departments adopt technologies that will deliver boosted efficiency and productivity.

Download the research report at http://www.itsurvey.eu/thebusinessofit.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

For further information, please contact
Laurie Glimmerveen
Wildfire PR
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8339 4420
Email: kaseya@wildfirepr.co.uk

About Kaseya
Kaseya is the global standard for IT automation, empowering IT service providers and IT departments in 32 countries. Kaseya's IT automation platform provides a unified set of tools that proactively monitor, manage and control IT assets remotely, easily and efficiently from one integrated Web-based platform. For a free 30 day trial of the Kaseya solution, please visit http://www.kaseya.co.uk/download

Intrinsic Technology has appointed two Business Development Managers, Ian Wynn and Billy Haining.

Wynn is to head up Intrinsic's new Carrier Services division and develop the business stream. Prior to his appointment he was Carrier Services Consultant with Calyx, and previously worked for ICL, Computacenter and Nexteria One.

Haining was headhunted by new Managing Director, Mike Mason, to sell and develop Intrinsic's newly launched Fusion Managed Services portfolio.

With strategic account management experience with Cisco including responsibility for branch refresh projects in DWP worth over $35m, as well as a Cisco VAR background, Haining was seen as the perfect candidate to shape and execute on the delivery of the Fusion portfolio.

Gregg Spooner, Technical and Managed Services Director, Intrinsic, commented: "Billy and Ian join at a critical time as we invest heavily in our services proposition. Two new additions to the team of this calibre will go some way to ensure we continue to enhance client choice and extend our reach."

Small businesses could save £200 per workstation each year by switching from PCs to thin clients

Reading, UK, 11 March 2010: Small businesses in the UK could be savings thousands of pounds in IT costs and management time by switching from their traditional computers to thin clients, according to research from IGEL Technology. A small company with five PC users could save £2,300 over the first three years and more than £6,000 over a 6 year period - the typical life of a thin client.

Annual costs per workstation below £600
Instead of conventional PCs with their own locally installed software ("fat clients"), employees would use small thin client devices, which look just like a small PC but run their software from a central server. This Virtual Desktop Infrastructure means that staff can still do all the same tasks as with their old PC but the running and maintenance costs are significantly reduced.

When distributed over six years, the costs for this kind of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) with five thin client workstations - including monitors, printer, keyboards and mice - comes to only £596 annually. In contrast, a comparable workstation in a conventional PC environment would cost around £800 per year. What's more, in purely Linux-based systems (no cost for Windows® licenses), the annual per-workstation savings increase by almost another £100.

Additional costs start paying off in year two
In the first year, the costs of acquisition and the initial installation make the VDI/thin client solution £150 more expensive but the annual operating costs for this solution are 43 % less than those for a comparable PC-based environment, which means that these additional upfront costs are already recovered in year two and savings start to be made.

"Basically, the potential savings increase along with the number of workstations," explains Dr. Frank Lampe, Marketing Director at IGEL, "One major reason for the savings is the consolidation of the desktops, applications and data all on to one central server that can be administered more efficiently. Additional savings come from the thin clients themselves, which have fewer parts, last longer and use less power than comparable PCs."

In fact, thin clients take less than half the maintenance time of traditional PCs with computers requiring 35 minutes per PC, per month for operating system updates, software patches and repair time where thin clients require just 14.5 minutes.

"Thin clients only have to be set up once. After that, with the exception of intermittent firmware updates, which take just a few minutes, they can keep on running without interruption," Lampe states. "In the unlikely event that a thin client fails, a replacement unit is easily hooked up. Once connected, it gets its particular configuration automatically from the server."

Software and Hardware Features
Nowadays, the software for virtualizing PCs (hypervisor software) is offered by manufacturers as free downloads. For example, Citrix XenServer™ Standard or VMware ESXi™ both offer a broad range of features fully meeting the needs of smaller companies with fewer workstations. Since the hypervisor software runs directly on the server hardware (a "bare-metal" installation), there is no need for an additional server operating system. Professional-grade server hardware, designed to provide five virtual desktops, has a net cost of about £3,000 (e.g. the Dell PowerEdge 2900, 8 GB RAM, 2 x 1TB HDD). This system includes a redundant cooling fan, the power supply unit and hard-drive storage. Thin clients set up to access virtual desktops are available starting at about £250 (plus VAT) - including a locally installed Internet browser and Virtual Desktop Appliance Mode (e.g. the IGEL UD2 420 LX). This sample calculation also includes a network printer (around £400), a 19" TFT monitor for each thin client (£150) as well as a keyboard and mouse for each device (a combined cost of £40 per unit).

More users means more power savings
When it comes to power consumption, both scenarios are about equal. The power savings argument typically cited in favor of VDI and thin clients really starts to make a significant impact at larger companies with around 25 users. In this kind of scenario, the thin client solution requires 650 W (250 W for 25 thin clients and 400 W for 25 virtual desktops), compared to the higher power requirements of about 2,500 W for 25 PCs. Furthermore, when the operating and stand-by times are taken into account, the annual savings in power costs for 25 thin client workstations comes to just under £400.

Notes on this calculation:
This sample calculation is based on the following parameters: The hypervisor software used in the VDI scenario (e.g. Citrix XenServer™ Standard or VMware ESXi™) is available at no cost for small numbers of users. The hypervisor software used is "bare-metal" and does not require a Windows-based operating system to run in. The desktop operating system used is Windows XP (SP3, SB license). Any additional software licenses required and the costs for data backups are assumed equal for both models. Installation and maintenance costs are estimated to be 70 euros/hour. Energy usage calculation (operation/standby) - PC: 120 / 5 W, TC: 10 / 1 W; server: 150 W (average amounts); operating times for PCs and TCs: 9 h x 220 days; for server: 24 h x 365 days). The service life for a thin client, about 6 years, is double that of a PC because thin client hardware has no wear/consumable parts, such as hard disks or cooling fans. In addition, unlike PCs, TCs are not subject to increased hardware requirements necessitated by new applications and operating systems. Calculation for the central virtualization server is based on the following example: Dell Poweredge™ 2900 with 2x 2.0 GHz Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor, 8 GB RAM, 2 x 1 TB hard disk in RAID1 array, VDI support and a second power supply.

About IGEL Technology
IGEL Technology is the world's third largest client vendor by revenue and is market leader in its home country of Germany (2009 IDC). The company produces one of the industry's widest range of thin clients, based on Linux and Microsoft Windows, giving customers universal access to centralized IT infrastructures. This Universal Desktop strategy allows IGEL customers the greatest flexibility to deliver virtual desktops from VMware®, Citrix® Xen or Microsoft®, terminal services, legacy applications via Ericom® PowerTerm® terminal emulation, web, Java, SAP and VoIP. Form factors include traditional desktops, integrated LCD units and quad screens. Using software, IGEL also offers its Universal Desktop Converter (UDC) to transform older PCs, as well as thin clients and netbooks from selected third party companies, into devices that can use the latest IGEL Universal Desktop firmware. This "soft migration" offers companies an economical way to centralize their IT infrastructure and helps prevent the need to spend large amounts of money on investing in new end-user devices. All IGEL products come with the Universal Management Suite software bundled free. This powerful, yet easy to use, software package allows IGEL thin clients to be centrally managed, keeping support time and costs to a minimum.

UK Press Contact
Paul Smith
The Amber Group
Tel: +44 (0)7770 828525
Email: Paul@ambergroup.net