People keep asking “what is cloud computing” and with all the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) along with every marketing department having a field day converting their services to include some element of cloud, the resulting confusion is hardly surprising.

So what is it?

It is a metaphor for consuming IT services as a utility, similar to how you’d use electricity. Like in the early days of electricity where you would need to know the method that it was generated with and how it was transmitted, everyone had a different plug socket and to use it you would have to generate it, maintain it and expand it at your own cost. It changed through standardisation and consumerisation bringing electricity eventually to everyone.

Similarly the internet and computing services are going through an evolution where by vendors are offering services that have been abstracted from their underlying technologies, servicing and upkeep for a recurring periodic charge. This provides you with the ability to consume what you need when you need it rather than having to purchase everything up front.

 What does that mean for me?

If you are a small business it opens up a number of technologies with a level of services that can only be achieved economically by scaling them. This has been an advantage that enterprise organisations have had for years. Whether you are looking for email and calendaring, file storage, customer relationship management, the chances are that a service is available.

So is cloud computing only for small businesses?

Certainly not but as the number of IT users you have in the business increases so does the magnitude on administration. No matter what current service providers say this does not diminish in a cloud environment and in many cases can itself magnify the problem due to the creation of data islands, mismatched service level agreements, regulatory compliance, fragmented authentication and authorisation methods along with service monitoring and management which still need to be upheld by you.

Where do I go from here?

As with any business change you need to start with a good understanding of what you are trying to address or what problem/issue you wish to remediate. We would recommend you take a structured approach so that you can clearly define your functional and non-functional requirements of the service then use this as the measure against using a public cloud service, building your own cloud service or taking a more traditional approach.

Recently, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a record breaking £375,000 fine for a data security breach by an NHS Trust. Panicked CEOs immediately issued instructions across the length and breadth of Britain to tighten up security – triggering an age-old battle between the need for simple, flexible data access, versus stringent data security.

With the prolific growth of mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones and tablets, not to mention the trend towards hot-desking and working from home or whilst travelling, many large organisations (not just NHS Trusts) are struggling to balance both requirements. The need to maximise web based opportunities whilst safeguard from Internet-based threats calls for an effective and flexible solution!

Waxtie is therefore delighted to announce the launch of its SAFE ZONE services, a suite of software and hardware options that directly address the subjects of Threat Management Gateways (TMG) and Unified Access Gateways (UAG) whilst working alongside standard Microsoft products. SAFE ZONE protects your organisation from Internet-based threats whilst providing simple data access by such methods as hot-pin technology on mobile devices. Some of the SAFE ZONE products also have the advantage of being straight out of the box options which can be plugged in and used immediately, providing instant peace of mind.

SAFE ZONE can also be deployed as part of Waxtie’s SAFE START programme – a consultative approach to new IT Projects that ensures all deployment of IT is ‘fit for purpose’ in terms of people and technology – and that time and money is not wasted on things that don’t work. Proposed options are tested and ratified by a ‘proof of concept’ procedure and for larger projects are included in a roadmap to final deployment.

To learn more about how SAFE ZONE and SAFE START, can help your organisation, call us on 0845 241 3211 or email info@waxtie.com. You can also post a message to us via the contacts page on our website at www.waxtie.com

Waxtie – so much more than IT

Managing Director Martin Sharp writes in the Ackrill Media Group Jan 2012 Business Monthly……

2011 has been a busy but challenging year which has seen Waxtie Ltd grow quite dramatically and I think our success has come from our ability to be able to adapt quickly to market changes.
A high proportion of Waxtie’s consultancy work is for trade partners and whilst that reduces potential profits, it has allowed us to maintain & increase the workforce and has guaranteed a steady and reliable cash flow. This has also given us the capability to address the needs of our direct clients from our wider skill base.
Investment in staff has always been core to our business with continuous training and personal development being of the utmost importance. We have made a commitment for 2012 to continue our recruitment drive and investment in training and have further increased our sales and marketing efforts.
Whilst many of our services are aimed at enterprise organisations, the recent promotion of our Windows 7 Migration and Safe Start (IT Business Strategy and Alignment consultancy service) has put us in a dialogue with a wider business sector.
Lots of businesses need to Upgrade to Windows 7 with the withdrawal of support for Windows XP and this upgrade needs more preparation than is immediately obvious. It will become a priority for most businesses in 2012 to ensure they do upgrade to Windows 7 .
A new service for 2012 which addresses the needs of businesses large and small is our Safe Start consultancy process. By looking at the whole IT and business picture, and creating a roadmap for future IT deployment, Waxtie ensures that a company’s IT strategy aligns to its business needs.
I think 2012 will continue to be challenging and those businesses who have a solid IT and business strategy in place will be first to reap the benefits of an upturn in the economy.

After attending the launch of the newly formed Connect Gazelles held at the LNT group head quarters in Garforth, Leeds, Waxtie have formally become members and looking forward to meeting new faces and hearing more inspiring stories.

The site “Leeds, Live it, Love it” provided a good article covering the main points of the evening, which can be read at this link,

What it does not say is the fantastic hospitality of the LNT group director and staff on the night. I can only say thank you and hope we meet in the future.

For more information about Connect Gazelles please visit the website.

Here at Waxtie, we are delighted to announce that we will be returning to exhibit at Venturefest Yorkshire on February 8th 2012 at York Racecourse – and will be introducing our Safe Start consultancy process. Safe Start affords businesses the opportunity to address their IT business strategy and create an agreed road map for future IT Deployment – without financial risk.

So come and talk to us about Safe Start. We look forward to meeting you.

Venturefest Yorkshire 2012

Looking to deploy private cloud solutions with public cloud potential? Waxtie provide private cloud solutions based on Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft® System Center.

http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-vsphere-ipad-app-new-update-v1-1-0-available

Citrix announces “Project Olympus”, a cloud infrastructure based on the OpenStack project, the cloud computing platform which Rackspace released under an open source license in July last year. OpenStack is becoming a quite popular platform, because beginning this month, Ubuntu announced that it will leave Eucalyptus for OpenStack.

Project Olympus provides:

• Citrix-certified version of OpenStack, and cloud-optimized version of Citrix XenServer
• Support for Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ms376608

BAA expects that 90% of its PCs will run Windows 7 by September, 2011

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/7/857AB2D0-EF89-4017-83AA-DE22E6AEAD88/BAAWin7Study.docx