The Fruit Mobile Blog

Think your organisation is too big for Hosted Exchange? Think again...

2012-05-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

Fruit Mobile, a Scottish based provider of Hosted Microsoft Exchange 2010 services have recently completed their largest migration to date of an internationally known enterprise with over 1000 active directory objects, 300 mailboxes, 500 mail enabled contacts, 100 distribution groups and 2TB of data.

One of the common misconceptions of cloud based services in mid to large enterprises is that hosted service costs do not scale favourably when compared to an in-house solution. Traditionally a large scale roll out of a mission critical system such as email, meant heavy, front loading of capital expenditure in order to acquire hardware & software / licenses. Whilst this model may have suited mid to large enterprises in the past, smart businesses are looking at the option of the ‘cloud’, due to a ‘pay only for what you are using’ pricing model. A common objection though is the 3 to 5 year total cost of ownership of ‘in-house’ versus ‘cloud’ solutions. Often the in-house solution may appear to more cost effective however when the entire scope of ancillary service cost is taken into account, this may not be the case.

Take Fruit’s recent migration as a case in point. This is an organisation headquartered in London with around 10 main sites (UK wide). They have two technical support staff overseeing around 300 users, accessing a wide range of fixed and mobile computer hardware, plus countless software products. Their existing email infrastructure was Microsoft Exchange 2007, supported in-house, with servers spread over three of their larger sites for resilience and performance. This was installed around three and a half years ago – a migration from Exchange 2003. The in-house Exchange 2007 setup is also supplemented by 3rd party Spam and Virus filtering as well as hosted online archiving.

Following a recent IT review, some key strategy decisions were made:

Steady increase in mail traffic and critically attachment sizes growing, meant that capacity issues needed addressed in the short term.
Mail server platform upgrade to Exchange 2010 to take advantage of the latest features such as 25GB mailbox capacity. A cost effective way to upgrade, must be found.
The in-house IT department struggle to provide service when site wide Exchange 2007 problems occurred. Support of the exchange environment should be outsourced to specialists.
Email services are mission critical to the business and therefore should have a Service Level Agreement in place to provide maximum uptime, fully resilient and ensure business continuity in the event of disaster.

The solution selected was Fruit Mobile’s Hosted Microsoft Exchange 2010 platform. Not only did Fruit’s service satisfy the requirements set out, but fruit were also able to deliver an almost cost neutral switchover by consolidating the Spam and Virus filtering service as well and Online Archiving into a single platform. Fruit provided a fully project managed migration service and, in collaboration with the local IT staff, moved the entire email system to the cloud. Redundant in-house server hardware was reclaimed and is currently being redeployed for other projects. IT technicians can now focus on delivering excellent desktop support to the staff. The business is now protected by a 99.9% uptime SLA for email services, ensuring they keep going even when in-house problems strike.

Having previously dismissed the Cloud as being too expensive, this is one “too big” enterprise client enjoying all the benefits for what they were paying for stand-alone services.

Still think you are too big?

Dude, where's my Data?

2012-02-23T05:51:00.000-08:00

So, you’ve identified the services you want to migrate, scoured the market for the lowest rates, made sure all the features of the service match your needs. What next?

How much importance do you place on your data staying on these shores? What about ownership of your own data? Would you prefer to keep that? Have you checked your insurance to see what cover you have if in fact your business critical data is not in the UK?

It is a worthy question to ask. As the race to the cloud scales up, the number of providers is growing exponentially. The main differentiator for attracting customers is price. The most commonly used method of keeping overhead costs down for providers is to use low cost overseas data centres. While I am sure the majority of these data centres offer an excellent service at far lower running costs than their UK equivalent, the fact remains that they are not of this land and therefore many of the law therein.

So what about Safe Harbor agreements, surely they protect my off shore data? The short answer is- perhaps. Some high profile law firms are questioning how robust these laws are when applied to specific regions.

With this in mind, what value do you place on using a company based in the UK which uses UK datacenters? A company which will, if absolutely necessary and security clearance permitting, allow you to visit these datacenters, touch the very servers data resides on?

Fruit Mobile’s differentiator is service. Our Hosted Exchange 2010 and SharePoint 2010 services are 100% fully UK based. The level of support is world away from our larger rivals – if you value a more interpersonal experience, rather than waiting in telephone queues and dealing with multiple agent operators. We won’t lock you into a minimum contract to stay with us, we do this because we are confident you will not want to go anywhere else.

So, before you sign up to your cloud provider, check the small print, check it again and ask the question directly if necessary...’Dude, where’s my data’?

Hosted Blackberry Express Server now available on our Hosted Exchange

2011-10-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

Fruit Mobile are pleased to announce that we are now able to offer Blackberry Enterprise Server Express compatibility as an option in our Hosted Exchange 2010 offering.

Since first providing Hosted Exchange we knew that providing support for mobile devices was essential. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 supports iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and any other Active Sync enabled device, right out of the box and is inclusive in the licensing costs. Blackberry however, is a different kettle of fish!

Blackberry don't (and for the time being, won't - I'll leave that discussion for another post!) support Active Sync to wirelessly synchronise Mail, Contacts and Calendar information (otherwise known as PIM - Personal Information Management). To do this, some proprietary Blackberry software must be installed in combination with the Blackberry NOC (Network Operation Centre - the source of the recent service disruption) to do this replication.
Until very recently this software (known as Blackberry Enterprise Server - BES) was:

Expensive to purchase the Server and CAL licenses
Expensive to deploy (it required to be installed on a separate server from the Exchange server and often meant bringing in external skills to deploy)
Expensive to maintain the sever software
Expensive to run - the Blackberry handsets also require a costly additional 'BES' option added to the Operator subscription.

With the success of Microsoft's ActiveSync technology being incorporated into other smartphone manufacturers devices, I am sure RIM (Research In Motion - owner/creator of the Blackberry brand) recognised that the existing cost of entry to the Blackberry solution was stifling their sales. With this in mind, an alternative was devised - BES Express. The benefits of BES Express are:

RIM no longer charge for the server software and client licenses
Can be deployed on the same physical server as the Microsoft Exchange email platform
Simpler install method.
Less expensive to run - Blackberry handsets using BES Express no longer require the expense full BES bolt-on onto the line rental. The entry level BIS (Blackberry Internet Services) bolt-on is all that is required.

So there we have a brief history of BES and BES Express - back to our story of hosting!

From the outset we deployed a Hosted Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) option in the Exchange 2010 environment. This was required to ensure support for existing Blackberry Server users could be met. Due to the license costs required by RIM and the fact that the Blackberry handsets require the expensive full BES bolt-on, the cost of running a Blackberry vs an ActiveSync device (iPhone, Android etc) just didn't stack up. Blackberry was way more expensive!

Attention was turned to somehow get Blackberry Express (a product not designed for running in a Hosted Environment) integrated and functioning on the Hosted Exchange 2010 environment. The far lower cost of Blackberry Express we know, is an attractive benefit to our clients. Its not for this blog to reveal exactly how this was achieved (there are very few - if any, other Hosted Exchange providers currently offering BES Express) but thanks to the hard work of the developers involved in the project, we can now offer Blackberry Express as an option in Hosted Exchange 2010. No more costly BES tariffs required for our clients, which I'm sure will be music to their ears!

If you are interested in finding out more about Hosted Exchange 2010 and how we can help migrate you from your existing platform please get in touch (tel: 0844 800 4218)

Anywhere Access with the new Exchange 2010 WebApp

2011-05-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

Get instant secure access to Hosted Exchange, with no set-up fees nor long term commitments

To join Fruit's Hosted Exchange platform today or simpily to find out more call on 0844 800 4218

Alternatively let us know when your free and we will call you back

Follow @fruit_mobile

Improving Business Performance with Hosted Exchange

2011-05-03T03:46:00.000-07:00

Get Connected
Business thrives on the exchange of information, whether it is information we are relying internally, service updates for a customer or promotional information for a prospect. We need communications and communication tools to be efficient, cost effective, secure, flexible, professional, reliable and easily accessible.

Remove those shackles
By using Outlook Web Access(OWA) from any web browser, you can create a secure connection to your data stored within Hosted Exchange including your emails, appointments, contacts, public folders and tasks. Hosted Exchange also works on your smartphone whether you use an iPhone, Android, Windows or even BlackBerry. You will stay connected and in sync whilst you are on the go.

Flexible and expandable (not just buzz words)
Historically Microsoft Exchange has had restrictive overhead costs especially for small businesses. SME's have to consider things like software licenses, purchasing and maintaining your own Exchange Server, keeping backups, and investing in upgrades. However, with the Hosted version of Microsoft Exchange you only pay for what you use. Meaning you can start off with any number of mailboxes (from just 1) and grow as the needs of your business change. The server is maintained on your behalf and you are always on the latest version of the software, with all the latest security patches and data backups.

Spam and Viruses, aren’t just annoying…
…they destroy productivity and pose a real threat to your business. By choosing Hosted Exchange from Fruit Mobile, you will get state of the art protection against Spam & Virus email as standard with each mailbox. In effect rogue email is cut out before it reaches your employees, not just saving time but protecting them against phishing scams and spoof emails. With cleaner inboxes just imagine how much more productive your team could be.

Business Continuity
All of your Hosted Exchange data is stored and accessed from the same source, which means as you connect to your Hosted Exchange data in a number of ways (Outlook, Webmail or Mobile), the two way sync between your Hosted Exchange and your connected devices, will always give you accurate and real time access to your Hosted Exchange data. For instance if you update or change an entry or read an email on your mobile this will be instantly replicated to your Webmail and Outlook clients.

Business Class Email from just 1 mailbox…
Get instant secure access to Hosted Exchange, with no set-up fees nor long term commitments

To join Fruit's Hosted Exchange platform today or simply to find out more call on 0844 800 4218 or visit www.fruitmobile.co.uk/exchange

Hosted Exchange And Its Advantages – An Overview

2011-04-12T01:19:00.000-07:00

Today’s highly competitive business environment requires companies and business persons tο bе іn constant contact wіth thеіr customers, clients and business team through emails. while hυɡе companies can meet thе expense οf tο set up and maintain thеіr own send bу e-mail servers and send bу e-mail systems, small or medium sized businesses often depend on another method tο carry out thеіr business communication needs. Hosted exchange is аn send bу e-mail hosting solution that helps businesses tο manage thеіr emails through аn external server provided bу a host. Thіѕ offers a lot οf benefits tο businesses іn stipulations οf cost, time, security, maintenance, and many οthеr factors. Sοmе οf the top advantages οf hosted exchange аrе as follows.

Security

Business data is highly vulnerable tο attacks and theft. Whеn уου ɡеt exchange server hosting providers tο handle your send bу e-mail communications, one οf the vital benefits is that аƖƖ your essential business information wait secure. Thіѕ provides уου complete data protection and security measures. they provide the latest anti-virus and anti-spam systems tο ensure that аƖƖ your vital data is insulated frοm the attack οf viruses, spammers, hackers, and scams. Incoming mails аrе scanned scientifically tο preclude security breaches; thіѕ helps іn saving a considerable amount οf time and assets.

Savings іn cost and time

Whеn уου rely on hosted exchange for managing your business send bу e-mail service, the amount οf time and money уου save is absolutely unbelievable. while the provider takes care οf аƖƖ the hosting, maintenance, and security activities wіth the help οf trained professionals, уου can concentrate on the οthеr aspects οf business. Thіѕ wіƖƖ eventually lead tο cost reduction as уου ԁο not hаνе tο pay for a separate team іn your office tο handle the send bу e-mail systems. the efficiency and quality οf your business increase whеn уου ɡеt more time and money tο invest іn it.

24×7 customer and IT support

AƖƖ the good providers offer around-thе-clock customer and technical support tο ensure that your communication system runs without any hitches. the support team sees tο it that the customer gets quick responses and solutions without experiencing any downtime or slowing down οf the process.

Scalability

A fаntаѕtіс advantage οf hosted exchange systems is that уου can implement newer technology or upgrades without interrupting the current systems and processes. Timely and continuous upgrades ensure that your send bу e-mail service always remains up-tο-date. there is nο need tο constantly monitor the latest technologies. everything is handled bу the exchange server hosting provider.

Synchronisation

Exchange server hosting makes it possible tο synchronise your send bу e-mail wіth different services. Thіѕ enables уου and your business team tο access mails frοm anywhere and at any time, whether through mobile devices or desktop computers. Thіѕ increases productivity and performance οf your business as your employees can ɡеt the updated information even іf they аrе working frοm home or on the move. Queries and complaints frοm customers can bе answered promptly.

Impart contacts

Hosted exchange allows уου tο impart contacts. Yου can give access tο οthеr users tο edit your contacts.

Impart tasks

It is possible tο impart tasks and assigning tasks among users and setting up a meeting is made simple bу automatically viewing the schedules οf others and finding out the convenient times tο meet.

Impart calendar

Hosted exchange provides delegation capabilities tο users. for example, уου can delegate someone tο create events for уου. Events on the calendar аƖѕο hаνе different colours and statuses for innumerable categories, such as personal, holiday, out οf office, etc.

Interval for archiving

Businesses ordinarily archive emails for innumerable reasons. it needs a lot οf interval and time tο store each and every communication over a day’s work. Whеn your business expands, ѕο ԁο the amount οf emails sent and received each day. Yου wіƖƖ require more storage interval for archiving. Hosted exchange providers take care οf thіѕ activity bу providing extra interval whеn it is required.

Divert emails

Exchange server hosting allows уου tο set up send bу e-mail policy. Thіѕ helps іn diverting mails tο the right person ѕο that queries and requests can bе handled effectively and without any delay. Whеn уου create policy for each οf the departments іn your company bу providing ѕοmе keywords, аƖƖ mails containing that word іn the theme line wіƖƖ bе aimed аt tο the specific department.

If уου want tο reach out tο as many customers as possible and organise your business and staff without spending a hυɡе amount for send bу e-mail communication, hosted exchange is the best option уου can consider. it offers convenience, speed, and affordability tο your business communication needs.

Impart and enjoy:Impart and enjoy:

THANKS TO WEB HOSTING HELP FOR THIS ARTICLE.

For more on Hosted Exchange click here

First Cloud Computing RAP Ever!!!

2011-04-06T02:00:00.000-07:00

For more info on stepping in to the cloud visit www.fruitmobile.co.uk/exchange

Benefits Hosted Exchange 2010

2011-03-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

No upfront investment. No long contract. No ongoing maintenance costs.
The beauty of have Hosted Exchange is that we already have the infrastructure in place to support you business meaning you have no huge up-front investment in new systems.

You simply pay a small monthly fee for each active mailbox and let us take care of the servers and central software – so you can get on with running your business. Our Hosted Exchange 2010 service is very flexible, meaning you can add and remove mailboxes as the requirements of your business change.

Share and synchronise
• Email, contacts and calendar anywhere – instantly synced on a PC, phone or web browser
• Shared calendars, contacts and tasks - plan meetings and check your colleagues’ availability
• Public folders and subfolders – collaborate and share with ease

Day-to-day email
• Outlook integration - works perfectly with other Microsoft products, like MS Office and CRM
• 25GB mailboxes – stop worrying about storage space
• Outlook Web Access (OWA) – real desktop email, anywhere you can get online

Support and reliability
• Premium business-grade support - run your business, not your mail server
• Security - no extra costs, with our built-in, award-winning spam and virus protection
• 99.9% available – provide communications your people and customers can rely on
• Disaster recovery – mirrored UK data centres in different locations, protecting you from downtime and data loss

Get instant secure access to Hosted Exchange, with no set-up fees nor long term commitments

To join Fruit's Hosted Exchange platform today or simpily to find out more call on 0844 800 4218

www.fruitmobile.co.uk/exchange

BlackBerry, Orange, Apple, Eggsbox!

2011-03-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this video is not really about Hosted Exchange or cloud computing, but I think the view on technology is very clever.

With Hosted Exchange 2010 from Fruit Mobile there are no installation headaches, cables or fuss.

Everything's in sync everywhere. BlackBerry, iPhone, desktop or laptop it just works.
The same goes for contacts, tasks and calendars. Perfect when you need to send updates to your team or schedule meetings while your out of the office.

Download the Hosted Exchange Brochure

Liam Bonthron | Business Development | Fruit Mobile Managed Services | 0141 204 3248

www.fruitmobile.co.uk/exchange

Email Insurance what’s your policy?

2011-02-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

A study produced by Radicati Group in October 2009 estimated the world-wide market for e-mail archiving market will grow from nearly $2.1 billion in 2009 to over $5.1 billion in 2013, with hosted solutions showing the fastest growth.

You would think that the experts were a little optimistic when they predict such a huge growth in this sector, but you would be wrong. Email is much more than just a communication tool, both commercial and governmental organisations have become reliant on email to send and store vital business information such as contracts, tenders, proposals, HR documents, payslips and marketing material.

What exactly is email archiving?
Email Archiving is the automatic process of capturing, preserving, and making easily searchable all email traffic giving you compress and encrypted records of each inbound, outbound and internal communications and attachments. The experts are predicting hosted archiving to show significant growth as it promises instant deployment and not upfront investment.

Objectives when deploying email archiving
There are many and varying motivations for deploying an email archiving solution, I’ve picked out 5 main ones to give you some food for thought. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or give me a call to discuss how these requirements/ objectives can affect your business.

• Regulatory compliance
• Litigation and Legal Discovery
• E-mail backup and disaster recovery
• Messaging system & storage optimization
• Monitoring of internal and external e-mail content

Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or give me a call to discuss how these requirements/ objectives can affect your business.

Liam Bonthron | Business Development | Fruit Mobile Managed Services | 0141 204 3248

www.fruitmobile.co.uk/email-archiving

Online Resources:
• British Standards Institution - BS 4783, BS 7799/ISO 17799, BS ISO 15489-1, BSI DISC PD 0008, BSI DISC PD0010, BSI DISC PD0012
• Data Protection Act 1998
• Freedom of Information Act 2000

C is for Cloud...

2011-02-09T05:46:00.001-08:00

I came across this video on the blog of another website (network world) and thought it was worth sharing. It features puppet instructors, I.T. Jinglehopper (aka 'Neal') and Jackson, who share there comical views on the "cloud". Enjoy!

Hosted Exchange vs. POP3 Email – Why swap to Exchange?

2011-01-31T01:57:00.000-08:00

In May 1977 Bert Lance believed he could save Uncle Sam’s USA millions of dollars if they adopted a simple motto: “if it aint broke don't fix it”

So if your POP3 email or webmail is working just fine, why move to Hosted Exchange 2010?

Speed up your system
POP3 is just about fine when you have one or two users checking email over your network. Add a few more, and POP3’s failing’s start to show – it hogs your network and really starts to slow things down.

Hosted Exchange is different. It’s designed for lots of users, and keeps everything running sweetly.

Never lose your email, contacts or calendar
With POP3, all your data sits on a single PC – yours. So if it’s lost, stolen or fails, you could lose everything.

Hosted Exchange 2010 is different. All your data is stored on our ultra-reliable web servers which mirrored in a different datacentre to ensure your information is always available and always protected.

Go mobile
With POP3, you can download email from your mobile – but it won’t then appear on your desktop machine when you get back into the office. And forget about searching though sent folders when you’re out and about.

Hosted Exchange 2010 keeps all your calendar, contacts and email up to date in real time – using ActiveSync or BES (for BlackBerry). Add a new contact or calendar entry on your phone, and it’s immediately synced on all your devices.

Share calendars and contacts
POP3 doesn’t let your share data with colleagues – making it a nightmare to arrange appointments.

With Hosted Exchange 2010, you’ll never double book again – simply check the availability of you colleagues before making appointments. You can even give trusted colleagues access rights to add appointments directly into your diary – or make groups of contacts available to your colleagues.

Outlook Web Access
Webmail is great in one respect – you can login from anywhere. Hosted Exchange 2010 now offers all the best bits of webmail, with the all new Outlook web app. This plugs you straight into your email, contacts and calendars from any web browser. It’s secure, and it’s standard for all your mailbox users.

Extended security
Microsoft Exchange Server was designed with security built-in – features include improved ability to restrict connections and messages, automatic logging off from Outlook Web Access, attachment blocking, Block Sender lists and antivirus protection.

For more information on a fully Hosted Exchange 2010 mailbox for your business go towww.fruitmobile.co.uk/exchange

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Free online file storage and sharing!

2011-01-25T02:55:00.000-08:00

Just Iike you I am always on the look our free stuff, whether it’s an app for my phone or a BOGOF pizza on a Tuesday. That’s why I thought I would share this we gem of freebie with you - Dropbox.

Picture the scenario, you have a various files on your laptop, desktop and smart phone. In the past when you have wanted to collate all this information in one place you have had to email yourself with file or mess about with a USB flash drive to transfer the files.

And yes, there is an easier way. I have been using Dropbox for over a year now and it’s a fantastic tool for keeping important stuff safe, secure and accessible. Once you have created an account you get 2GB of free online storage, depending on the quality on the file this is probably enough to store about 1000 photos. You can download a Dropbox client/ app for your desktop, laptop and smartphone(s) all of which are free. As soon as you drag a file in to your Dropbox on your desktop, it is uploaded to your online vault or “the cloud” and then replicated to each of your laptop and smartphone. Best of all should anything ever happen to your device(s) an online version of the file is always available in the web based version of Dropbox.

Another great feature of Dropbox is the share option, so instead of emailing loads of files to an individual or group of individuals you can share a folder with them meaning they can access the files they want when it is convenient. The example Dropbox use for this is sharing your holiday snaps with your family, which is definitely an improvement on sitting through your uncles boring slide show of his caravanning photos from Skegness.

Some businesses have taken to the use of Dropbox for storing and collaborating their companies files, I think in its basic form Dropbox is fantastic to store files and access remotely, for instance in my Dropbox I have an electronic copy of our Brochure which I can very quickly share with someone either by viewing on my phone or by emailing it directly (as I would forget otherwise). The weakness however is in the collaboration, for instance if you have tender document stored on your Dropbox which requires the input five of your colleagues then potentially you could end up with 6 versions of the same document. The original document created by you and then a version by each of your five colleagues who have all made different amendments… the result for you is a very messy and laborious cut and paste job for the next 2 hours.

For personal use and as a resource for a light business user Dropbox is fantastic, you can create an account for free and download your Dropbox here. And if you need any assistance give me a call.

Liam Bonthron |Business Development |Fruit Mobile Managed Services |0141 2043248

Hosted is better...

2011-01-19T04:58:00.000-08:00

“According to CNET, 80% of businesses are looking to move at least some of their services to the cloud.” Why this rush? Well, to start with, there’s no hardware or software to worry about.” Also you can forget about backup tapes, fireproof storage, and encryption, all your information can stored and mirrored in fully redundant datacentres. Meaning you can get on with running your business and not your servers and IT systems.

The big question that arises when I am discussing cloud based services with my clients is around security. Will my data be safe? Will it be backed up? And will I have access to my data whenever I want? The simple answer is YES. Fruit Mobile hosts all of its cloud based services in purpose-built datacentres. The datacentres hold mirrored or duplicate data and are in different locations, this adds resilience and protection over data lose. Meaning we can offer a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%. In fact, all your data is encrypted and tamperproof. Can you really say that about your current setup?

For example with our hosted email archiving solution MessageProtect all genuine emails are delivered to your inbox within seconds. On top of this, your business gets an indexed, compressed, encrypted and tamper proof record of who said what and when.

Hosted services can be a very cost effective method to access to the latest technologies with huge investment at the front end also it can mean scalable solutions as some cloud based solutions are available on a short term or rolling contract.

In my opinion a cloud based email service like Hosted Exchange 2010 is very much an entry point for businesses moving “into the cloud”. The benefits of Hosted Exchange 2010 could have a huge effect on your business:

· Instant deployment

· Low, monthly ’pay-as-you-go’ costs

· Secure – with award-winning anti-spam and anti-virus protection

· Backup and disaster recovery

· No software upgrades or hardware repairs

For more info about Hosted Exchange 2010 or any of or other services please visit our web site www.fruitmobile.co.uk/exchange or give me (Liam) a call 0844 800 4218

Should business email be confined to business hours?

2011-01-10T05:52:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest advantages of "cloud computing" is your information easily accessible from a Web browser, wherever you happen to be.

An excellent example of this is with email. It used to be that to send and receive email you required mail client program to be running on your PC . However times have change and new technology such as Hosted Exchange 2010, everything's in sync, everywhere. BlackBerry, iPhone, desktop or laptop it just works anywhere, any time 24/7, improving email reliability, employee productivity and reducing costs.

With this in mind one the points that often get raised is should business email left for business hours?

I look forward to your seeing your votes and comments...

Liam Bonthron |Business Development |Fruit Mobile Managed Services |0141 204 3248

STAND OUT FROM THE CLOUD

2010-12-20T02:23:00.000-08:00

Recently there has been a lot of noise about ‘cloud computing’, and if you were to Google “benefits of cloud based computing” you would have nearly 950,000 results in less than 0.16 seconds.

Information Overload
You could read articles for days and still be none the wiser, so it can often be easier to hand over the running of your IT to a specialist provider. To help you select the right partner, though, it’s useful to have at least a brief idea of how cloud computing can help your business.

What is the cloud?
Most business people will have heard the expression ’cloud computing’, even though relatively few people understand what it actually means. In a nutshell, instead of purchasing expensive computer hardware and software and maintaining it within your company’s network., Sservices are provided on demand via the internet. This means you only ever pay for services you require and you can easily scale your capabilities to meet the needs of your business.

What services can be cloud based?
There are three types of cloud computing,; Infrastructure as a Service, Software as a Service and Platform as a Service. Most likely you will use cloud services on a daily basis without giving it much thought, and in most cases this will be more than enough to run your business – for example, cloud-based services could be used to securely store a company’s working files.

Where to start?
For any organisation considering moving services to the cloud, hosted email can be a good starting point. Microsoft Exchange is the premier choice for business email; with Hosted Exchange 2010 from Fruit Mobile you can access this without any upfront investment. In addition, that industry-leading quality comes with complete peace of mind over the security of and access to your data.

Straight talking and wealth of experience
Glasgow-based Fruit Mobile brings a wealth of senior level experience from organisations such as EDS, ICL, BT, Reuters and Siemens. Our customers benefit from this experience, whether they are a small business with just a few computers, or a large enterprise client. We can help you optimise new technology into an easy-to-manage and integrated system, delivering a top-end service without the big corporate price tag.

If you have any questions about Cloud Computing or would like to discuss the benefits of Hosted Exchange from Fruit Mobile, then please feel free to get in touch and we can arrange to go for coffee and discuss your questions.

Liam Bonthron Business Development Fruit Mobile Managed Services 0141 204 3248