Sun shines on BSG

Vendor selects reseller as its UK open source training partner

VAR Business Systems Group (BSG) can add another feather to its cap as it prepares for its £15.5m acquisition by healthcare IT services specialist Advanced Computer Software.

The alternative investment market-listed reseller has been selected as the Sun Microsystems Open Source Training Delivery Centre for the UK.

The reseller, which already holds Executive status in Sun’s Partner Advantage programme, will be delivering a wide range of Sun open source courses from its newly enlarged training facility in London.

Mike Sampson, head of training at BSG, claimed the economic climate was forcing end users to look more closely at open source.

“Organisations could make vast savings every year if they made more use of open source as part of their core system and application strategy,” he said. “With the ability to download the open source software for free, developers need to maximise their productivity as quickly as possible and a structured training programme should be a pre-requisite for ongoing, effective development.”

BSG extended its City Road-based Training Centre last year and the facility now has 16 meeting and training rooms. It also includes a suite of the latest Sun Ray virtual desktop thin clients.

Mark Pittaway, Sun’s chief learning officer UK, said: “BSG’s investment in both its training facility and open source development and service delivery skills convinced us that it was the best partner to work with in delivering our open source strategy throughout the UK.”