For the record 7 January

07-01-2008

by Emmet Ryan

HP names Infinite Technologies as preferred partner | Bill Gates begins farewell tour

HP has named Infinite Technology as a 'preferred partner' for 2008. In all 38 companies in Ireland have attained this status, which is designed to ensure that organisations can easily identify partners in whom they can have confidence in providing services in all aspects of the HP product range.

IT distributor Data Solutions has announced two new appointments. Lisa Ryan has been named as the firm's new channel sales manager (Citrix). Ryan will be responsible for developing and implementing sales initiatives for Citrix partners in Ireland. The other appointment sees Eugenio Mourino Balsa named as product account manager (Check Point). Balsa will be responsible for driving Check Point sales, market development and overall channel support.

Spam levels remained high in December according to IT security firm SoftScan. According to SoftScan spam levels reached 97.02 percent and viruses accounted for just 0.11 percent of all emails. In total less than 3 percent of all email scanned was legitimate in December.

Edel Creely has been appointed managing director of Datapac, with responsibility for its Information Technologies and Business Solutions businesses. Creely was formerly commercial director with the systems business for two years and has over 20 years' experience in the IT industry.

Finally, now that the end is near and it's time Bill Gates faced the final curtain, he's likely to take his time doing it. The Microsoft founder, who will step down from the company later this year, began his farewell tour at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He told attendees at the show that consumers will be able to interact with technology more in future, controlling devices with simple hand and foot gestures. Gates clearly decided to go out in style this year as his keynote video featured contributions from Bono, Steve Spielberg, George Clooney, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.