Good times, bad times
Who has been on top of the world and who has been down in the dumps in the last fortnight
Good times
Cloud computing
Anyone who dismissed this cloud computing lark as just another buzzphrase that wouldn't catch on will be eating their words after figures suggested cloud is now a third of the market.
IDC says cloud computing's share of the overall IT infrastructure market rocketed from 28.7 to 33.8 per cent in 2015 after vendor sales in this area grew 23 per cent against a flat on-premise market.There may still be cloud deniers left, but they are increasingly resembling King Canute at the moment the waves began to lap around his feet. With rival analyst Forrester also declaring 2015 as the year "cloud went mainstream", there seems to be no avoiding the mass of cumulous rapidly engulfing the market.
Exclusive Networks
Exclusive Networks has a billion reasons to be happy this month after its latest and largest acquisition to date thrust it into an elite pack of distributors whose revenue number stretches into 10 columns.
The Paris-headquartered distributor intended to smash the €1bn barrier in 2017 but has achieved its goal ahead of schedule thanks to its purchase of Asia-Pac player Transition Systems.
Avnet, Arrow, Ingram and Tech Data take note: Although the VAD currently lacks US presence, it says it's not yet done on its growth drive and intends to continue to double in size every two years.
Welsh IT suppliers
Softcat and Insight led the way on an £800m framework designed to deliver value for money for Welsh public sector bodies on their IT purchases.
But not everyone was happy with the outcome of the framework, with one small Welsh reseller who lost out arguing that local players should have been given extra credit when bidding.
"We've got a lot of Welsh customers who feel we've become such an integrated part of their strategy [through doing business on previous versions of the framework], they feel they've had their arms ripped off now as well," said Shaune Parsons, managing director of ComputerWorld Wales.
Bad times
Microsoft Surface
Much like buses, mishaps relating to Microsoft's Surface tablets tend to all come at once.
No sooner had Microsoft admitted it is suffering a shortage of certain versions of its shiny new Surface Pro 4 than it was engulfed by a recall saga relating to older models.
CRN sister publication Channelnomics Europe exclusively broke the news that Microsoft is enacting a "voluntary recall" of AC power supplies for its Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3 models, due to overheating concerns. This apparently affects all devices sold before 15 July 2015.
Microsoft always wanted its tablet business to catch fire, and now it's got its wish a little too literally.
Outsourcing
UK businesses and outsourcing go together like Fred and Ginger, Bert and Ernie and that tall guy and posh bloke on Pointless.
But the UK's status as an IT outsourcing and BPO frontrunner could be under threat, with new figures suggesting 2015 saw the market slump to its lowest value for six years.
According to market watcher ISG, the total value of UK commercial outsourcing deals worth $5m or more slumped by 19 per cent last year, mirroring a decline in the wider global market. On the plus side, this presumably means your own job is less likely to be shipped off to a third party in Budapest or Bangalore.
The world
With his colourful lifestyle and his involvement three years ago in a Belize murder probe, John McAfee may not be the first person you'd approach for a sage, considered opinion on the world's big issues.
But the anti-virus doyen's latest blog may have struck a chord with many in the IT industry as he argued that cyber-security has been neglected as a topic in the US presidential race.
McAfee, who himself recently confirmed his ambitions to run for the White House, warned the US faces the prospect of "total annihilation" if it does not take the topic seriously, arguing that a cyberwar is "clearly on the horizon". He really needs to get off the fence.