Coming Up for Air – All You Need to Know About Surface in Education

 ‘Our aim is to empower every student on the planet to achieve more.’ Steve Beswick, Business Development Director – Education Industry, Microsoft.

That, in a nutshell, is what Surface in Education is all about.

Anyone who has paid attention to Microsoft over the years will be aware of the company’s long-term commitment to education. Right from the days of Bill Gates, Microsoft has invested in education; it’s one of the key tenets at the heart of the business. Consequently, as a reseller, if you’re looking to expand your target market, the education sector is the ideal area to set your sights, because Microsoft – and Westcoast – are already prepared to help you. 

Can you be the F1rst Among Equals?

There’s always something special about being the first. You may carry the honour with a devil-may-care nonchalance, but whether you’re the first to own a new piece of tech, or you’ve come first place in the parent’s egg ‘n’ spoon race at your kid’s sports day, there’s a certain swagger that you just can’t shake off.

Imagine, then, the feeling not only of coming first, but of winning a corking prize for doing so. Oh! The smugness would overflow! Well, that’s the opportunity you get with Westcoast F1rsts, in collaboration with Microsoft.

HP’s Big Answers to the Security Conundrum

Here’s a sentence you might not be used to seeing: It’s not possible to be fully protected against every security risk in IT. Maybe that doesn’t surprise you. After all, how do you even begin a conversation about security when it comes to IT? If we accept that full protection isn’t possible, then where do we start? Well, with HP actually. And here’s why.

HP are leading the way as an OEM by including vital security features with their Elite range of devices. With such a vast amount of considerations to be made, it’s no longer viable or fair to leave security up to end users, which is why HP have introduced some innovative new features into their premium product line, equipping users with some vital security tools from the get go.

Are education customers overlooking storage?

Guest Post

Computers have changed everything. Whether we’re talking the classic desktop, the humble laptop, or the flexible tablet; they’re now such a natural part of our lives that some would say that we take them for granted, despite the increasingly central role that they play.

The education sector is playing a key part in making technology more accessible. IT skills are essential in the vast majority of jobs once pupils and students move into the working world, which is why it’s so important to establish a wide-ranging digital environment in schools: not only so that they have hands-on experience of using technology and devices, but also as a means of teaching them the potential dangers that they can face in the new digital age.

Getting Theale Green into Tech

Press Release

July saw the exciting final of Education Business Partnership’s (EBP) three-day programme where they joined Westcoast, one of the UK’s largest IT distributors, at Theale Green School to engage with, and inspire, Year eight students about jobs and roles in the technology sector.

The programme covered various topics, including; products and marketing, job roles, skills and qualities and technology of the future. Jane Grunseid, Business Development Manager said, “The programme has been really successful with 90% of students saying they were inspired and motivated. This comes at a good point in their education where GCSE subjects are still to be chosen, career paths are uncertain and students are eager to have their horizons broadened.”

Window 10 Pro for Workstations

By Owen Hutchinson

Windows 10 Pro for Workstations is coming: find out everything you need to know and avoid paying extra

This Autumn Microsoft is rolling out Windows 10 Pro 64 for Workstations: an OS variation that’s optimised for professional users. This isn’t just a vanity update, with the new features covering a range of areas that are a boon for hardware that has to support critical workloads.

Specifically, the new features include support for:

● Up to 4 Physical CPUs

● Massive memory (up to 6 TB)

● SMB Direct/RDMA capable network cards

● Persistent Memory (NVDIMM) and Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), so you can blast through file transfers and advanced workloads

● Creation of Resilient File Systems (ReFS) volumes so that data is mirrored to multiple drives, while being monitored and repaired if degradation is detected

Why we need another HPE access point

By David Anthony

I must admit, I thought to myself “why are HPE pushing an Office Connect access point? Isn’t this just going to take business away from Aruba and confuse the issue?”

Not for the first time, I’ll admit I was wrong. I’ve written previously about how smartphones have raised everyone’s expectations about what we should be able to do in the workplace. If we can run our lives from our phones, why not our businesses from our laptops, tablets and phones, wherever we are?

Portable gaming: An industry on the move

By Carl Oxley

Ever since Nintendo launched the first Game Boy in 1989, the world of portable gaming has been witness to a very gradual but notable rise. As graphics improved, more games became available and, most importantly, with huge leaps in memory and the continuation of Moore’s Law, the consoles themselves became increasingly portable. As such, the market has undergone a consistent growth that has recently hit an unprecedented peak.

Securing your Hybrid Cloud/Multi-cloud Strategy

By Adam Hartley

Cloud technologies are no longer the leading edge done by early adopter companies. In fact, private clouds, hybrid clouds and multi-clouds are quickly becoming the de-facto standard among organisations across business verticals.

The major drivers for this migration to the cloud is lower price, scalability, global availability and the need for global availability with no downtime.

Unsurprisingly, Cloud Service Provider revenues grew steadily in 2016 with Amazon Web Services (AWS) growing its revenue to more than $12.2 billion, followed by Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and IBM Cloud.