The Cloud Computing Centre

Latent issues

2011-04-28T11:10:00.002+01:00

Latency which is generally measured by the amount of time that it takes for one computer system situated in one location to talk to another system elsewhere is having an impact on cloud computing solutions - but just how much of an issue is it?

Find out by reading our article on latent issues in cloud computing (published on Business Cloud 9 this morning).

Think before you leap into PaaS

2011-04-12T09:24:00.001+01:00

With the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) market truly set to heat up this year, I’d like to give those considering the move a word of advice - let us not forget everything we have learnt over the past 30 years about vendor lock-in. Indeed, if we are not careful, we will put ourselves at risk of repeating the mistakes of the past without realising! Read the full article on thinking before you leap into PaaS

Why your company should employ cloud computing

2011-04-07T09:42:00.001+01:00

In today’s business environment cloud computing technology is frequently mentioned but should your company be looking to move to the Cloud and more importantly do you know if it is suited to your business?

If you are unfamiliar with the term ‘cloud computing’ it simply means that all your computer power is managed through an imaginary space called “the cloud”. This cloud is at a shared location that all employees at a company can access and it means that through this cloud all employees of a company can have access to the company’s software, data and applications. This therefore eliminates the requirement for physical storage of computer hardware as the cloud ensures that multiple users can access what they require in a secure open environment.

There are many advantages of using cloud computing technology and five key reasons which illustrate why businesses should be considering cloud computing technology are highlighted as follows:

1) Cloud computing can save a company money

By using cloud computing technology it means that the computer hardware costs are reduced within a company. Traditionally, the more software, data and applications used within a company meant the more resources being utilised. However, if a company employs a cloud computing platform there are greater economies of scale to be gained as a company can access a cloud provider’s infrastructure which has already been developed for such economies. Another key point is that cloud computing is used like a utility which means a company only pay for what they use, therefore a company no longer has to buy physical IT assets and make large capital investments.

2) Cloud computing offers greater flexibility

Cloud computing gives a company greater flexibility as it allows a business’s data to be accessed from anywhere and through different devices such as a mobile phone. This allows companies to be flexible as employees can connect to the cloud from anywhere and have access to the same software and data as if they were in the office.

3) Cloud computing ensures a central and reactive infrastructure

Cloud technology ensures that a company has a central and reactive infrastructure. This is because cloud computing ensures that data is located in a centralised location which ensures impressive up-time levels that is hard to achieve with physical onsite technology.

4) Cloud computing gives better network security measures

The security of cloud computing technology is acclaimed as being of a better standard than the network security measures currently employed by companies. It is often felt that if a company depends on the security of its data and applications then they should look to cloud computing as it will ensure reliability and security.

5) IT management within a company becomes easy with the right cloud computing provider

If a company selects an industry-renowned and experienced cloud computing provider they can also ensure that the management of your cloud and your systems becomes easier within the company. This is because a knowledgeable cloud hosting provider will ensure there is no down-time (many through rigid and competitive SLA’s to give a company peace of mind) and ensure that the company’s physical data is organised and secure.

As you can see employing cloud computing technology has many benefits. The main advantages are the cost savings, the security and the ability to put the management of the cloud into a providers hands to manage and ensure up-time and standardisation for your company. It is little wonder that companies are choosing cloud computing for their business and it seems that it is only a matter of time before this type of technology becomes common practice.

If you are interested in cloud computing the next step will be to talk to some experts to ensure that your company is suitable to move to a cloud-based environment. It will be understandable that you will have lots of questions and will want to speak to a company with renowned industry knowledge. The Cloud Computing Centre is a company that can help as they have helped hundreds of companies move into the cloud and can provide you with a fully functional environment to evaluate and check that moving to the cloud is for you.

Our new cloud computing website

2011-04-06T11:57:00.004+01:00

The new Cloud Computing Centre website is here! A new look, a new feel and more content than our previous version, reflecting how our business has changed in the last few years. In over 25 years of business, these last two or three years have probably been the ones where we have seen the most change, both in terms of the cloud computing industry itself and in terms of our own growth.

So have a look around – we have some great materials available for you to browse and download about all things Cloud-related – whether that be cloud hosting services, cloud computing solutions or managed hosting services – we are your people to talk to about the Cloud!

And let us know what you think of the new website – we’d love to hear from you! Please contact us.

10CMS moves its Cloud to the Cloud Computing Centre

2011-03-31T16:06:00.005+01:00

10CMS, a rising star in the online world of eCommerce for high street retailers, has moved its Cloud from Rackspace to us - the IT hosting specialist - the Cloud Computing Centre.

Flexibility is the key to success

2011-03-30T09:29:00.003+01:00

The Cloud Computing Centre’s argument that organisations must engage in flexible agreements with their cloud service provider in order to benefit from the considerable cost savings commonly associated with cloud computing is a hot topic of conversation. Indeed, our recent views on the matter have been published on Business Cloud 9, a business-to-business community dedicated to the cloud computing revolution.

Read the full article on why flexibility is the key to success.

A preview of the article can be seen as follows:

Whilst a cloud service will allow you to operate at highly affordable prices and give you access to world class infrastructure only normally available to FTSE 100 companies, it is essential that in order to maximise the potential cost savings, the organisation first makes a business case for the exact services required from a cloud solution. Without sitting down with the cloud supplier to establish exactly what is required prior to signing the agreement, the customer can easily end up paying for a service which does not directly address their business needs. And opting for the cheapest solution does not always make great business sense: In life, you get what you pay for, and therefore if you are not paying a great deal for the cloud service, you will not a great deal on your return!

Again, we see a chasm emerging between the provisions of a public cloud service, and those offered of a private cloud service. Granted, public cloud models offer the customer fantastic value for money, and give you those economies of scale only previously associated with FTSE 100 companies. Before the advent of cloud computing, an SME couldn’t possibly justify building their own data centre, implementing tight security procedures or purchasing expensive infrastructure to run particular applications in-house, yet when putting your applications and services into the cloud, all this becomes a possibility.

Is a new assurance standard really necessary?

2011-03-24T09:08:00.001Z

I read with great interest an article last week arguing that a new assurance standard is needed to instil confidence in cloud computing (Cloud confidence needs new assurance standard, Computer Weekly, 8th March). But whilst the drive for simplicity may well be desired, it is highly impractical to sweep aside existing standards and create a new standard to cover all elements of cloud computing.

What the industry must bear in mind is that the standards a customer has to ensure their provider is accredited with will entirely depend on what infrastructure, application or hardware they are choosing to have hosted. For instance, does the hosting provider need to be PCI DSS compliant? Does the nature of the information require the hosting provider to be ISO 9000 (quality management) and ISO 27001 (data security standard) compliant, and store data in Tier 3 or Tier 4 data centres that are ISO 14000 (environmental management standard) compliant?

All of these standards will depend on the exact cloud service required by the customer, and as such, it would be near impossible to create a new, one-size-fit-all assurance standard that Reilly argues the industry is in need of. Entirely because there is no off-the-shelf cloud model that suits all and the fact that cloud services are moulded around the customer’s individual business requirements, there can therefore be no one-size-fit-all assurance standard.

The Cloud Computing Centre advises on how to pick the right cloud model for you

2011-03-22T17:28:00.001Z

Making the decision to take your IT infrastructure to the Cloud is great, but do you know what kind of Cloud services you require?

The Cloud Computing Centre provides a comprehensive guide to choosing a cloud model that is right for your business requirements, where that be a public cloud service, private cloud service, or a hybrid mix of the two.

Testament to its sound advice, the guide has been published on Business Cloud 9, a business-to-business community dedicated to the Cloud Computing revolution.

Read our decision makers guide to the Private Cloud.

An extract from the comprehensive guide is as follows:

Whilst adoption of cloud computing services appears to be on the rise, it is of paramount importance that organisations ensure they opt for a model for suits their individual business requirements. Indeed, ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ clouds are terms that those who are considering Cloud services are using frequently, but what makes a cloud either public or private, what are the advantages of either and when is each use most appropriate?

Under a public cloud model, a company or individual will subscribe to a service – a piece of software such as Salesforce.com, email such as Google mail or online document backup. Companies have no idea where key data is being stored, making the public model impractical for any organisation holding UK government data which must be stored within the UK borders.

A private cloud, in contrast, offers companies the chance to specify every last detail of the infrastructure supporting and providing the application or service, from the make and model of the hardware, to network management tools and firewalls. The infrastructure is not shared with any third parties and the cloud provider will offer an SLA with clearly defined financial penalties for any breach in performance.

Cloud Computing Centre selected as the preferred supplier for the legal sector

2011-03-22T17:01:00.013Z

News that the Cloud Computing Centre has been selected as the preferred supplier of on-premise and hosted IT services for the legal sector by the SOA reached the ears of Computer Weekly, the UK's leading publication for IT decision makers.

Read more by visiting Computer Weekly and reading their lawyers go cloudy news update.

Or read our press release on how the Cloud Computing Centre joins the Solicitors Outsourcing Association (SOA).

Of course, if you would be interested in finding out more about how the Cloud Computing Centre can develop a dedicated hosted IT service for your business, then please contact us.

Cloud computing to create 300,000 new jobs?

2011-03-03T15:16:00.003Z

With news out last week that cloud computing is to create 300,000 jobs in the UK alone, it is great to see that the benefits of cloud technologies are finally being appreciated rather than dismissed as ‘hype’. Putting more and more IT infrastructure into the Cloud will have enormous implications on our industry as the cloud computing growth to generate 300,000 UK jobs CRN article published last week is testament to.

But where are these 300,000 jobs going to be generated from? Rather than directly create jobs in itself, cloud computing will be responsible for increasing companies’ revenues, which will in turn allow businesses to grow, develop and take on additional staff in this way.

The article makes notes of the fact that much value will be derived from private and hybrid cloud models. A combination of public and private cloud solutions will always be cheaper than any on-premise alternative, at the same time as offering customers a better level of service. Cloud computing allows even the smallest of organisations to access technology that is infinitely superior to anything that they would ordinarily be able to afford in-house, a luxury only normally available to FTSE 100 companies.

The savings generated from putting increasing numbers of systems and applications into the cloud will allow businesses to add significant amounts to their bottom line. And as a direct result of the savings made via cloud services, organisations will have more money to reinvest back into the business, and into new projects which will naturally generate additional employment.

Critics who blame cloud computing for causing an ongoing loss of jobs in the industry should therefore avoid the short term view and look ahead to what can be achieved in the future. Yes, IT workforces may be reduced in some cases as cloud computing is rolled out, but ultimately, hundreds of thousands of new jobs will be created within companies with increased investment power.

The G Cloud

2011-03-01T11:53:00.002Z

Whilst Mark Ballard argues that the government’s cloud computing strategy requires the status quo to be broken in order to be successful (Can the G-Cloud programme weather the storms of an unruly IT industry, Computer Weekly, 15th February), it is near impossible to define success in a project of this magnitude and complexity when figures are being plucked from thin air in such random fashion. Government projects are infamous for never being delivered on time or on budget, so why should we take the figures here as gospel?

Instead, a more practical approach should be taken, examining individual locations or departments and extrapolating as appropriate. Estimations can then be made for how much it would cost to roll out across the entirety of the public sector, simultaneously accommodating the differences between the various departments, allowing industry experts to reach quantifiable and tangible conclusions.

Rather than relying on biased incumbent suppliers, the government should put out a number of different tenders, allowing them to enter into conversations with major cloud players, such as Amazon or Google. Having built and managed IT infrastructure of a similar size to that required by the government, these cloud giants are perfectly positioned to offer insight into the G-Cloud proposals. Taking a small governmental department and giving it to one of these giants as a trial would be an excellent proof of concept. By all means, the government should consult incumbent suppliers, but by ruling out discussions with major cloud players, they are at risk of relying on inaccurate cost assumptions for the G-Cloud programme.

We are in the depths of a data explosion, but levels of security should not be compromised

2011-02-24T09:23:00.000Z

The amount of data that exists in the world today is staggering: indeed, I recently came across a study conducted by the University of Southern California, which concluded that if all the world’s data was stored in books, that is, all 295 exabytes of it, it would cover the entire area of China three times over. And bearing in mind that this study was completed using the volume of worldwide data in 2007, and that most storage experts agree that the levels of data held worldwide doubles every six months, we could today be looking at a number that is 32 to 64 times greater than this!

Mind-boggling figures aside, this study goes some way to highlight the potentially serious problems that can be created by the plethora of data we are faced with today. Rather than get rid of data that is no longer needed, many companies simply purchase more storage capacity, and at less than £100 for 1 terabyte of data, the offer is undeniably tempting. Tools are available that identify old or un-used files which can be archived or deleted. In my experience however, these tools are not being used extensively.

So what problems can be associated with holding this staggering amount of data? Such casual approaches to storing data will inevitably lead to breaches in compliance, whether that be data protection, PCI DSS compliance or even theft of data by competitors or employees. Such breaches in security could have huge repercussions for the company in question, so isn’t it worth spending a bit of time archiving, or even better, deleting old, unnecessary files, which could prove detrimental to the organisation if stored on-premise?

Whilst we cannot control the overwhelming amounts of data being stored worldwide today, we can provide you with a robust, resilient and entirely secure location to store your data. As 27001:2005 accredited hosting providers, Cloud Computing Centre can store your data in Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centres, manned by 24 x 7 security staff and secured with leading edge firewalls, anti-spam, anti-virus and real-time monitoring technology. So don’t delay the sorting of your data any further: continuing to purchase more and more storage capacity to hold your spiralling levels of data will not get you anywhere. Instead, archive or delete old files to ensure breaches in compliance are not an issue.

Take your IT to the Telehouse Cloud

2011-02-22T10:05:00.005Z

Cloud Computing Centre is pleased to announce that we are opening a new primary processing suite at Telehouse West, the latest and greatest state-of-the-art Tier 4 data centre, which at nine storeys and 19,000m², stands high above Telehouse’s two existing data centres in the heart of London’s Docklands.

Telehouse has invested £80 million into the flagship data centre facility, which marks the latest evolution of the Telehouse brand and something which we are proud to be a part of.

Cloud Computing Centre has another processing centre in Telehouse North, and having also filled our second site at Telstra to capacity, we have decided to invest in additional centre in Telehouse West. With regards to international traffic, Telehouse has the lowest latency of any data centre in the UK, meaning our new storage facility will be hugely popular with our international prospects and customers alike.

To increase our storage capacity, we have ordered four new SAN devices, a number of blade servers and Cisco switch equipment, and we are building the new centre as we speak. Building resilience into the new facility, we will be connecting Telehouse West to the rest of our data centre network through our own dedicated fibre optic cables. Laying a number of cables where one would ordinarily suffice allows for solid business continuity, as any one of the lines can be cut and traffic can still pass through without a hitch.

We will be going live at the end of February, with CCC Primary Centre 3 at Telehouse West giving us our processing capacity throughout 2011. So if you want to store your IT infrastructure in the very latest data centre to be built in London Docklands, contact us today.

Don't let cynicism cloud your judgement

2011-02-17T15:03:00.001Z

In a opinion posted on Computer Weekly entitled don’t let techno-babble cloud your judgement recently, Robert Morgan claims that there is nothing new or unique about cloud computing technologies. Ironically however, there is nothing new or unique about his opinion - his dismissal of the cloud is nothing we haven't heard before, and as such, goes some way in highlighting just how little is still appreciated about the cloud.

It is true that bureaux were set up during the 1970s and 1980s, which mirror some of the technologies we see today being used in cloud based solutions. In terms of who is recieving those services however, the situation could not be more different. Originally, bureau technology was restricted to those organisations able to afford it, whereas in recent years, virtualisation and cloud technology has become available to the masses. As such, cloud computing is unique in that it provides the very smallest organisations with technology that is infinitely superior to what they would otherwise be able to afford.

Morgan also raises concern over the levels of security involved in cloud computing but is here quite wrongly assuming that everyone is opting for a public cloud. This ignore the widely available option of private clouds where far more stringent data security provisions than would otherwise be readily available can be exploited. These include Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centres, manned by 24 x 7 security staff and secured with leading edge firewalls, anti-spam, anti-virus and real-time monitoring technology.

Prior to the advent of cloud computing, an SME couldn't possibly justify building their own data centre, implementing such security procedures or purchasing such advanced technology-surely making the cloud's arrival a compelling 'business trend'?

2011 is the year for Cloud, so why is Europe still so far behind the US on uptake?

2011-02-10T19:28:00.003Z

We read with great interest an article published on One Stop Click entitled 2011 is set to be a big year for cloud computing this week, which claimed that 2011 will see a rise in the prevalence of cloud computing. It is therefore concerning to see that another claim is being made in this week’s computing.co.uk entitled Europe is 12 months behind the US in cloud uptake which states that Europe is still at least 12 months behind the US on uptake of cloud technologies.

Let’s put this into perspective: if we’re going to start making such claims as to argue 2011 is the year for “cloud”, yet Europe is lagging behind, it is of paramount importance to understand what is indeed meant by the over-arching term of “cloud computing”.

We must not allow ourselves to pool all cloud computing services under the same “cloud” umbrella. Within “cloud” comes a plethora of different cloud models, and with each separate component, there are different conversations to be had.

The One Stop Click article makes specific reference to private cloud services as being the primary reason for the growth of “cloud computing” as a whole. And quite rightly so – enterprises are beginning to realise the benefits of cloud computing, beyond that of cost efficiencies, and these are no more apparent than in a private cloud offering.

Taking the Computing article, it argues that Europe lags behind the US on uptake of cloud technologies. While we must again question what kind of cloud technologies, the point must be made that many of the major IT players are based in the US, and that trialling public cloud solutions in domestic markets – such as in the case of SalesForce.com and Amazon Web Services –before launching worldwide is common practice.

The future is however, looking rosy for adoption of private cloud services, especially in the UK. Due to compliancy issues, an increasing number of organisations, especially within the Square Mile, are being forced to find procedural safety and data security from off-premise solutions rather than invest in additional in-house IT infrastructure.

A private cloud service offers exactly this, providing City organisations with the chance to specify every last detail of the infrastructure, from the make and model of the hardware, to network management tools and firewalls. The infrastructure is not shared with any third parties and the cloud provider will offer an SLA with clearly defined financial penalties for any breach in performance. So whilst Europe as a whole may be behind the US in adopting “cloud” technologies, the UK market is set to see a significant rise in private cloud uptake

Moving to the private cloud - A decision maker's guide

2011-02-08T15:43:00.005Z

You’ve made the decision to take your IT infrastructure to the Cloud, but what kind of Cloud services do you require?

'Public’ and ‘Private’ clouds are terms that those who are considering Cloud services are using frequently but what makes a cloud either public or private, and what are the advantages of either and when is each use most appropriate?

Keith Bates, Chairman of the Cloud Computing Centre offers suggestions on where to start in our whitepaper Private Cloud Vs Public Cloud.

Bond International Software moves into the cloud with the Cloud Computing Centre

2010-03-25T13:53:00.007Z

Bond International Software, a global provider of recruitment and human capital management (HCM) software and services, has signed a new ongoing agreement with the Cloud Computing Centre, to provide Cloud-based services to host its large enterprise customers’ payroll, HR and recruitment services.

Find out more by reading our press release Bond International Software moves into the cloud to provide added resilience and security

Selima moves into the cloud with the Cloud Computing Centre

2010-03-10T12:28:00.004Z

Selima, a provider of HR software solutions to the public sector, has signed a new multi-year agreement with the Cloud Computing Centre, to provide Cloud-based services to host and manage its customers’ payroll, HR and expense management software in the Cloud.

Find out more by reading our press release selima goes into the cloud

Securing the cloud

2010-02-23T11:21:00.004Z

Another conference last week, the Westminster eForum on cloud computing had vendors and delegates discussing security within the cloud. Computer Weekly reported that ISC2 said security professionals must embrace cloud or fail . It quotes one of the eForum speakers saying that the business case is overwhelming, referring to the reduced cost, rapid provisioning, scalability and flexibility of cloud computing, adding that security professionals need to work out how their organisation can use the cloud securely with minimum risk.

Cloud Computing Centre security experts are always available to discuss potential pitfalls or problems of security.

UK Government to set up its own cloud computing system

2010-02-17T08:31:00.002Z

The recent article in The Guardian, let’s open up cloud computing has provoked a lot of interest and indeed a lot of scepticism within the IT industry, and I for one have a reasonable amount of both.

The article highlights an issue that has huge potential cost savings for Government. The reduction in the ridiculous number, over 500, of Government run data centres down to just 12 highly secure and robust “super data centres” to facilitate Government Cloud Computing. The argument for this is obviously compelling, and, if managed successfully, could easily deliver the massive savings to the UK exchequer of £3.2 billion per annum. In fact, I would be amazed if more than a small fraction of the current capacity is actually being used. Just using virtualisation technologies could reduce the amount of equipment required - such as servers - down to as little as 10% of current requirement and, in the process, probably save enough power to consider cancelling more than half of one of the proposed new nuclear power stations!

The key question, however, would be who would run this immense project. The UK Government will spend about £16.5 billion on IT in 2009/10, equivalent to 1.4% of GDP. Most of this money is wasted, with only 30% of projects succeeding, writes IT expert Liam Maxwell in a new report (It's ours: why we, not government, must own our data (PDF)) published by the Centre for Policy Studies and described as a "must-read" by the Ideal Government Project.

The NHS fiasco shows clearly that the UK Government has no ability whatsoever to deliver this as a successful project; indeed you could almost guarantee a catastrophe. And indeed a failure on this magnitude would make the current level of UK debt look positively manageable. The only way this could ever be contemplated would be by giving the project to the organizations highlighted in the article, who have at least successfully built similar sized computer resource pools, such as; Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc. Of course, if this sea change in policy was to be achieved, there would need to be safeguards in place to stop these types of organisation from bleeding us dry! For example, fixed price contracts as opposed to the “whatever it takes” disgraces of the past. Prudence would suggest that an exercise to take a smaller government department, and give it to one of these giants as a trial, would be an excellent proof of concept.

Is there a party out there that would like to champion this level of IT savings?

IT costs less in the cloud

2010-02-12T11:05:00.005Z

Last week’s ‘Powered by Cloud’ conference had a number of vendors explaining the substantial cost savings that are introduced by moving into the cloud. According to this week’s Computer Weekly in its article cloud shrinks IT costs by 90% representatives from mobile network operator Vodafone and TV broadcaster Channel 4 said the cost of their cloud based processing was a tenth of traditional in-house computing. Also reported was comms vendor Verizon, which said its customers were saving between 25- 75% of the traditional costs. These sorts of claims should focus the attention of CIOs and IT management on looking into the alternative options that are offered to both large and small enterprises by the cloud.

Decisions moves into the cloud with the Cloud Computing Centre

2010-02-11T12:22:00.004Z

Decisions, the independent database software provider, has chosen the Cloud Computing Centre to host and manage all of its Software as a Service business for its contact manager™ CRM solution.

Find out more by reading our press release Decisions moves into the cloud to guarantee
business continuity and disaster recovery

Snow problem?

2010-01-27T11:25:00.006Z

Whilst the snow decimated the UK during January it was great to see technology making a difference for Strictly Education, the school support services. They pay about 40,000 teachers each month who were slipping and sliding their way to their respective schools only to find they were shut, and then getting stuck in the snow for days trying to get home again.

No such problems for the Strictly Education payroll team, the snow wasn’t an obstacle for them. Those who could get to the office readily did so. Those who could not, simply logged into the Strictly Education system via the Cloud from home and did all their payroll input work as per normal. So all their 40,000+ teachers were able to get paid without any issues.

All of this could only be achieved because they run their ICT systems in the Cloud provided by The Cloud Computing Centre.

Maria Mason, Head of Payroll at Strictly Education said, “If the snow had come whilst we still had a traditional ICT arrangement running from servers in the office then the people who weren’t able to get to work physically couldn’t work. With Cloud Computing that’s not the case and it’s saved us money, aggravation, time and our customers don’t suffer at all.”

Through using the Cloud Computing Centre Strictly Education have gained a business continuity solution - the whole idea of Cloud Computing brings a new dimension to continual up time which is so vital to maintain a healthy business. No fuss, no hassle just computing power like an everyday utility! Even when it snows!

ESG becomes the Cloud Computing Centre

2010-01-12T14:49:00.002Z

London, UK 12th January 2010: Today, Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG), the managed services provider, announces that in order to reflect its drive and focus to become one of the major players in the UK market delivering ‘Cloud-based services’ to ISVs, technology providers and specific vertical markets, it has formed a new company to more accurately reflect its future. The new company, will be known as The Cloud Computing Centre www.cloudcomputingcentre.co.uk and will expand on the ESG offering of business consultancy and hosting services to enable ISVs and other technology providers a faster route to ‘Cloud-based’ delivery of their software.

The new name fits perfectly with the company's strategy and direction of increasing its presence in the wider Cloud Computing arena and its further growth plans both within the UK and internationally.

Over the past three years, ESG has acquired several companies, which has led to a change of focus and has led to the need to re-position the business. In order to more accurately reflect the primary focus and direction of the business the Board has decided to change the name to the Cloud Computing Centre. As Keith Bates, Chairman of the Cloud Computing Centre comments, “The company is a growing force in its market and through a number of targeted acquisitions and heavy investment over the past three years, we have developed an enterprise class data centre and communications infrastructure, with fully integrated management and service restoration processes. This enables our ISVs and technology providers to embrace Cloud Computing quickly, painlessly and with minimal risk. This is undoubtedly our forte. As such, we feel that the new name more accurately reflect the company’s position at the forefront of the market and will enable us to secure its future success.”

The Cloud Computing Centre is a privately-owned provider of services to hundreds of companies with many thousands of users across the UK. The Centre maintains over 500 managed servers requiring petabytes of data storage capacity. On an application basis, it is estimated, for the Cloud Computing Centre’s payroll users alone, that they will process over 150,000 payslips per month at the data centres.

Bates concludes, “As the use of Cloud-based services for software as a service (SaaS) delivery of applications continues to gain momentum, growing numbers of ISVs and technology providers are looking to evolve from purely ‘on-premise’ suppliers to offering customers a choice of robust and secure managed service options. However, the correct choice of SaaS partner is key to ensuring a seamless transition to the Cloud Computing model, as there are a number of key technical criteria that need to be addressed. From data centre location, to disaster recovery strategies and connectivity concerns. If you include all of the surrounding business issues of developing a ‘route to market’ or ‘go to market’ strategy, there is a lot of information that needs to be processed prior to embarking on the move to the Cloud. By focusing on this dynamic area we are confident that we can offer our customers the very best communications and solutions.”

Ten questions to ask before you sign a hosting or managed services contract

2010-01-08T13:05:00.002Z

As use of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model for application delivery gains momentum, growing numbers of VARs (Value Added Resellers) and ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) are looking to evolve from ‘on premise’ suppliers to offering customers a robust and secure managed service option. But in a market that ranges from basic hosting providers offering nothing more than rack space to fully managed solutions complete with in-depth business consultancy, choosing the right provider is complex, especially for organisations unfamiliar with the challenges associated with SaaS.

From data centre location to disaster recovery strategies and connectivity concerns, knowing the right questions to ask a potential provider is key to ensuring the correct long term decision. Keith Bates, Chairman of The Cloud Computing Centre offers some suggestions on where to start probing in a free downloadable PDF - ten questions to ask before you sign a hosting or managed services contract.