Citrix Systems appoints Regional Director for Middle East & Africa

Posted on by
Reply

Citrix Systems, Inc., a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service, today announced appointment of Aaron White as Regional Director, Middle East & Africa (MEA).

Aaron joins Citrix from VMware to lead business development across the region, strengthen its leadership position in the Virtualisation and Cloud solutions market and drive the company’s plans for growth. He replaces Antoine Aguido, who departed Citrix towards the end of 2010. Aaron will join the Citrix team based in Citrix’s regional head office in Dubai, with responsibility for the growing Middle Eastern business.

In his previous role, Aaron spent three years at VMware, taking the lead on strategic channel and alliance programmes across its Eastern EMEA operations. Starting his career at Unisys, Aaron also spent eight years at Sun Microsystems pursuing sales and business development roles. He has a MSc in Information Systems from the University of Liverpool, UK.

Commenting on his appointment, Aaron White said: “Citrix’s plans for growth in the Middle East reflect the dynamic industry environment and enthusiasm for technology innovation in business. I look forward to building on the company’s market leadership and expanding our customer and partner networks throughout the region.”

Milos Hrncar, Area Vice President for Eastern EMEA, Citrix Systems: “With the addition of Aaron White to the Middle East team, we are confident in the continued success of Citrix in the region and in our preparation to meet the business challenges in these markets. His proven leadership skills and sales expertise offer a solid foundation from which to reinforce our position as a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service through virtualisation, networking and cloud computing technologies.”

Citrix enables its customers throughout the region, spanning oil and gas, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications and public sectors, to harness the business benefits of Cloud and Virtualisation strategies. Continuing success to date, Aaron’s appointment supports Citrix’s announcement of an ambitious expansion plan for the region that saw the Saudi Arabian office in Riyadh and Qatar open in January 2011, with offices in Doha and Muscat, scheduled to follow throughout the year.

Citrix Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualisation, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual data centres for IT. More than 230,000 organisations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2010 was $1.87 billion.

iomart Group Completes Maidenhead Data Centre Expansion

Posted on by
Reply

iomart Group, one of the UK’s leading managed hosting and cloud computing service companies, has today announced the completion of the second phase of an expansion programme at its Spectrum House, Maidenhead data centre.

The programme, another sign of strong customer demand for both the Group’s cloud computing and managed hosting services, provides iomart with a further 650 square metres of new data centre space, or 300 high density racks, and increases the facility’s total data centre area to more than 1,300 square metres.

In addition to the data floors, provision has been made to provide office and build room accommodation for clients.

The new space provides an energy-efficient, secure, standards-based environment for housing the latest hosting technologies, with free air cooling, 2N UPS and N+1 backup generators. The data centre has been equipped to meet the Group’s core objective of delivering 100% Uptime and availability, with all services being engineered to ensure no single point of failure.

Power is fed to the hosting floors from the UPS to multiple Power Distribution Boards. These boards provide single phase 240V AC power to each rack/cabinet on the floor. Feeds are rated at 8A, 16A or 32A with up to 32A available in a single rack/cabinet.

Spectrum House is redundantly connected to iomart’s UK network of four further data centres through dedicated dark fibre chains, providing the hosting floors with access to over 40GBit/s of premium internet connectivity. As a result of this network investment, Spectrum House can facilitate client connections from a standard 100MBit/s speed up to multiple 10GBit/s connections.

Ed Butler, Director of RapidSwitch, an iomart Group Company, has overseen the expansion. “Spectrum House has provided our clients with exceptional service since we opened the facility in early 2009, but we have quickly reached a stage where we needed to expand to meet the Group’s current and future customer growth needs. We have doubled our capacity both in datacenter space and network capacity.”

“Given its physical proximity to our City of London data centre, Spectrum House is a vital component of the Group’s high availability cloud offerings. The interconnectivity between the two locations provides an ideal solution for cloud based disaster recovery, mirroring and backup solutions.”

“The technological advancements that we have delivered through this expansion, combined with the group’s engineering and hosting expertise, will prove to be a winning combination that will benefit current and future clients with the most advanced and stable hosting environment possible.”

iomart Group now offers over 4,500 square metres of data centre space across its Maidenhead, Glasgow, London, Nottingham and Leicester sites.

A video tour of the facility is available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmBfmTuVZZw

Founded in 1998, the Group has evolved to become one of Europe’s largest providers of web hosting and cloud computing service providers, serving over 400,000 customers each day. Having been at the forefront of the UK’s technological revolution for over a decade the Group has developed an enviable reputation for its internet expertise, its service ethic and its product innovation.

By physically owning and managing its own network infrastructure, including five state-of-the-art data centres in the UK, iomart offers world-beating levels of service to its customers. The Group offers a unique 100% uptime guarantee with all hosting services being engineered to ensure no single point of failure.

iomart Group operates in its chosen markets through a number of subsidiaries: iomart Hosting, RapidSwitch, Titan Internet, Easyspace and iomart Cloud Services.

Salesforce.com Announces Colocation Expansion Plans

Posted on by
Reply

Cloud computing firm Salesforce.com has plans to add 100,000 square feet of colocation space next year, according to a report by Data Center Knowledge.

Salesforce.com discussed the plans at the DataCenterDynamics New York conference on Thursday.

According to the report, Salesforce.com operates seven data centres in the US and Asia. The company is getting ready to open a new data centre in Japan and plans to open a data centre in Europe next year.

“We spend a lot of time looking at what’s going on in colo facilities and how we can do it better,” Frank Guerrera, vice president of technical operations at Salesforce.com said at the conference.

“One of the key things we needed to to was be more flexible,” he added. “We have to deploy equipment quickly. We’re constantly evolving as a company. In the data centre, we have to understand these trends and build to them.”

Data Center Knowledge says Salesforce.com is “unlikely to consider remote areas where power and land are cheap.”

“We look for peering points, so we can’t build in some of the cheapest places,” he said.

Early February, Salesforce.com named Jeff Lautenbach senior vice president of enterprise commercial sales.

Salesforce.com recently acquired Ruby-based cloud application platform Heroku for about $212 million in cash.

Web Host Indsoft Launches Cloud Hosting Infrastructure

Posted on by
Reply

Indian Web host Indsoft have announced its plans to launch its cloud hosting infrastructure.

Through this addition, Indsoft says it will offer a variety of new cloud hosting services.

“We are thrilled to bring to our customers the absolute cloud hosting solution. It is today’s industry-leading hosting solution,” Murphy John, managing director of Indsoft said in a statement. “We are well equipped and have the expertise to manage and maintain all critical applications and infrastructures for leading companies, worldwide.”

According to the company’s website, its virtualisation platform is the Xen Hypervisor.

“You don’t need to learn cloud computing. Just start using it,” Sameer Kambli, head of technology at Indsoft stated. “Cloud hosting built on the platform can scale to 8 CPUs with 96GB RAM and run virtually any operating system. We also provides High Availability hosting services powered by a load-balanced cluster of servers.”

IndSoft says its cloud hosting is billed monthly, based on usage.

In the event of a hardware issue, Indsoft automatically shifts to the next best server in the cluster to handle the load with its 100 percent fault tolerant high availability clustered cloud hosting program.

INetU Launches Hosting Services in Amsterdam

Posted on by
Reply

Leading managed hosting and cloud provider INetU has gone international. Just weeks after passing a third-party independent audit to meet ISAE 3402 international accounting compliance standards, INetU has launched hosting services in a state-of-the-art data centre facility in Amsterdam, Netherlands, for its international clients.

“Operating our services abroad was the logical next step in our efforts to meet the needs of our ever-expanding international clientele,” said Dev Chanchani, president, INetU. “The initial feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive and we’ll continue to listen to their needs and act accordingly.”

The Amsterdam facility is a 24/7/365 operation that caters to a variety of international clients by offering flexible and tailored solutions. Staff is available at all times to ensure systems are running smoothly and client service needs are met.

“With our continued international growth, we needed a European hosting partner that could satisfy our stringent requirements for performance and security while delivering speedy implementation,” said Ye Zhang, Collections Marketing Center, Inc. (CMC) co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. “We chose INetU to support our rapid expansion not only because of their impressive Amsterdam facility, but also because they have a talented and responsive operational team. We are confident they can complement our growing needs.”

The world-class Amsterdam facility is built for maximum security. The location has been certified as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Section 9 (PCI DSS 9) compliant, meaning online data and customer records receive the utmost physical security.

In February 2011, INetU started its push to accommodate international clients by complying with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements No. 3402 (ISAE 3402). INetU passed an independent audit and is recognised as an ISAE 3402 compliant hosting company. ISAE 3402 was developed to provide an international assurance standard for allowing public accountants to issue a report for use by service organisations and their auditors.

About INetU Managed Hosting
INetU is a leading managed hosting provider serving customers worldwide. Dedicated to building long-term relationships with its clients, INetU supports many popular Web applications and provides highly reliable hosting for enterprise websites in the Online Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services, SaaS, Web Development, Education, Government, Consulting, and Non-Profit sectors. To learn more, visit www.inetu.net.

About Collections Marketing Center, Inc.
Collections Marketing Center, Inc. (CMC) pioneered the industry’s first completely virtual, adaptive collections platform providing comprehensive self-service strategies geared toward all types of account holders spanning credit cards, mortgage and home equity loans, student loans, phone and utility bill payments. The FlexCollect platform combines advanced decisioning technology, a marketing focus and responsiveness to changing consumer behavior to optimise results for creditors in their credit risk, default management and loss mitigation operations. For more information, visit www.cmcagile.com.

Centrica Selects HP for $400 Million Technology Migration

Posted on by
Reply

HP Enterprise Services UK Limited today announced that Centrica plc has signed a seven-year outsourcing services agreement worth more than $400 million.

With the new agreement, HP will enable Centrica to move to a utility-based private cloud computing environment that will support Centrica’s change program, improve speed of deployment, help lower costs and support the company’s environmental objectives.

“Centrica is striving to improve our ability to respond to market changes to supply gas and electricity to homes and businesses more efficiently,” said Dave Bickerton, group chief information officer, Centrica. “We value HP’s utility computing capabilities and quality solutions that are flexible, cost-effective and help reduce our carbon footprint.”

HP will deliver Utility Services that support Centrica’s migration to a private cloud- and utility-based computing environment enabling greater flexibility to reliably respond to changing business conditions. Centrica will have access to next-generation technology with just the right computing capacity to meet its needs with minimum cost and environmental impact. Centrica also will have access to HP’s enterprise cloud-computing services to enable better data access and new products and services for its customers.

HP will provide these services from two of its data centres in the United Kingdom, including one in Wynyard cited by the Uptime Institute for its eco-friendliness. Centrica will benefit from remote data centre support delivered from HP Best Shore global delivery centres in India, Malaysia and the Philippines. Centrica also will use considerable project and applications services from HP to support the Centrica-led migration.

“The utility industry around the world is making great strides using technology to support an Instant-On enterprise that gives businesses and consumers more control over their energy usage and utilities more options in how they deliver energy,” said Mike Nefkens, senior vice president and general manager, HP Enterprise Services – EMEA. “The combination of HP’s technology and services – such as cloud computing – helps us create the innovative, integrated, end-to-end solutions customers like Centrica need to more effectively and efficiently achieve market, cost and environmental objectives.”

In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with everything they need, instantly.

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

Webhosting.uk.com launches Cloud Based SharePoint VPS Plans

Posted on by
Reply

Webhosting.uk.com, a UK-based managed web hosting provider, have launched Cloud-based SharePoint VPS Plans with a 100% uptime guarantee. The company states that all of these servers are based on Hyper-v virtualization system and use cloud hosting environment. It explains that all of their cloud clusters are hosted in a TIER IV facility which eliminates any possibility of downtime due to a power or network outage.

They further explain that in the event of hardware failure, Cloud VM’s automatically migrate away from the failing hardware to another member of the cloud ensuring there is no downtime relating to power outages, network failures, failure of servers or storage devices.

The company currently offers three different plans to choose from. Some of the key features of SharePoint VPS Hosting plans include MsSQL 2008 Standard Edition, IIS7, Administrator RDP Login, Dedicated RAM and CPU, Dedicated IP’s, FrontPage Extensions, ODBC Support and more. Furthermore, each server has its own Active Directory and SharePoint instance giving the user complete control on their SharePoint environment. These servers not only offer greater reliability in the form of 100% uptime and scalability in the form of easy upgrades, but also guarantee higher level of security.

James Anderson, Sales & Marketing Manager, Webhosting.uk.com states, “We are excited with the launch of our Managed SharePoint Hosting Services. SharePoint can revolutionise the way a company operates. Our SharePoint VPS products are perfect for companies looking to outsource their existing SharePoint services to a fault tolerant infrastructure while keeping costs low. As our services are fully managed, our SharePoint VPS products are also ideal for companies looking for a new SharePoint deployment.”

More information is available at: http://www.webhosting.uk.com/sharepoint-vps-hosting.php

DediPower Launches Mobile Apps for Instant Access to Hosting Tools & Reports

Posted on by
Reply

DediPower, a UK-based private hosting company, is launching brand new iPhone and Android mobile apps to provide access, flexibility and greater convenience to Cloud and Managed Hosting customers.

The only enterprise hosting provider in the UK to provide the tools required to manage hosting platforms remotely via a smart phone, DediPower is setting a new benchmark for hosting services while underpinning delivery of its “Support with Passion” through enhanced customer communication and improved infrastructure management.

According to Chris Miller, CEO DediPower, “As well as driving innovation in server architecture, DediPower constantly strives to improve customer service and provide extended support. Many of our clients are regularly out of office or flexi-work, so it makes sense to have a dedicated mobile customer portal that allows them to monitor and control their platforms remotely, wherever they were straight from their phone.”

DediPower’s new mobile applications provide flexible access to a range of management tools and services, defined by the type and nature of the hosting platform. They allow users to view and monitor servers and bandwidth as well as deliver support tickets and respond to notifications remotely.

Miller adds, “At DediPower, we’re renowned for maintaining 24/7 system availability – and that means instant access to our customer facing support services too. For DediPower, it’s all about delivering world-class value, convenience and peace of mind to all of our clients – irrespective of budget, resource or system complexity.”

Experts in Cloud, Enterprise and Managed Hosting, DediPower offers a full range of bespoke hosting services backed by extensive SLAs from its UK and internationally based Tier 3 Enterprise Class Datacentres. For further information visit http://www.dedipower.com.

DediPower, backed by its philosophy of “support with passion”, is a leading international provider of IT hosting and cloud infrastructure solutions. With data centres in the UK, North America and Asia, DediPower supports thousands of customers including Sony, Virgin, Eidos, NHS, Bluhalo and Lovemoney.com with the latest technology to reduce costs, improve service levels and maximise their online potential. It is ranked among the UK’s 50 Fastest Growing Private Tech Companies by the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100. DediPower is headquartered in Reading Berkshire, UK. For more information, visit http://www.dedipower.com or follow DediPower via Twitter, twitter.com/dedipower.

PROACTIS Teams With NaviSite to Deliver Cloud-Based eProcurement Solutions

Posted on by
Reply

NaviSite, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise-class hosting, managed application, managed messaging and managed cloud services, have announced that PROACTIS, a leading provider of spend control and eProcurement solutions, has selected NaviSite’s Managed Cloud Services (MCS) to deliver secure, reliable and scalable eProcurement solutions to its North American customers for deployments across the globe.

With NaviSite MCS, PROACTIS is reducing the costs and mitigating the risks associated with managing its own infrastructure, while expanding application delivery options for its customers. PROACTIS offers flexible licensing models and lets customers choose from a range of delivery options, including cloud-based, SaaS, dedicated managed hosting, on-premises, and hybrid. With NaviSite MCS’s usage-based pricing, PROACTIS customers can rapidly – and cost-effectively – scale to meet changing resource requirements.

“We are very pleased to partner with NaviSite to provide a range of cloud-based eProcurement delivery options to our North American customer base,” said Sean McDonough, COO, PROACTIS. “NaviSite is a proven leader in providing complex enterprise-class application hosting services. Their large footprint means they are also positioned to support the global deployments a number of our customers are now undertaking.”

More than 350 organisations across 70 countries use PROACTIS software and services to streamline their purchase-to-pay process and obtain best value and control in procurement. Widely used in mid-to-large sized organisations across private, public and not-for-profit sectors, PROACTIS is routinely integrated with ERP and financial systems.

“We are excited to work with such a forward-looking company,” said Mark Clayman, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Sales, NaviSite. “PROACTIS is leveraging our platform to expand its application delivery channels and reach a larger customer audience with its innovative suite of applications. We look forward to a strong relationship with PROACTIS as it continues to grow both its customer base and its business.”

NaviSite’s highly resilient service delivery infrastructure spans several SAS 70 Type II data centres, while a comprehensive security framework ensures the privacy and integrity of applications and data. NaviSite’s managed cloud and enterprise hosting services are backed by world-class support and service level guarantees.

NaviSite, Inc. is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class, cloud-enabled hosting, managed applications and services. NaviSite provides a full suite of reliable and scalable managed services, including Application Services, industry-leading Enterprise Hosting, and Managed Cloud Services for organisations looking to outsource IT infrastructure and lower their capital and operational costs. For more information about NaviSite’s services, visit www.navisite.com.

Symbio and Ethos to Accelerate Cloud Computing on Mobile Devices

Posted on by
Reply

Symbio, a leading provider of Research & Development innovation services and outsourced product development solutions, have announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Ethos Technologies, a pioneer in cloud computing solutions, to accelerate the design and development of cloud applications and services on mobile devices.

The strategic partnership with Ethos Technologies further strengthens Symbio’s ability to provide advanced product design and engineering co-creation services to global technology market leaders and innovators. Together with Ethos Technologies, Symbio can offer over 500 mobile and cloud computing specialists worldwide who understand the latest technologies and how to provide consumers with exceptional user experiences. Companies will benefit from a total one-stop solution to create advanced cloud applications and services that run seamlessly across all major mobile platforms and ensure fully optimised user experiences across any Internet-enabled device.

“With our broad expertise on Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7 Series combined with Ethos Technologies’ deep expertise and proprietary IP with public and private clouds, Symbio can deliver new and exciting applications and services to help our clients win in the marketplace,” explained Jacob Hsu, CEO of Symbio. “This is a great opportunity for Symbio to further strengthen our digital convergence solution portfolio and enable our clients to create tomorrow’s winning products.”

“Ethos Technologies is very excited to partner with Symbio as we both share the passion of making digital convergence between communications and computing a reality,” said Olav Nedrelid, CEO of Ethos Technologies. “Converged technology will transform the way we use our mobile devices, and we are delighted to develop cloud computing based services together with Symbio.”

Symbio will showcase its R&D innovation services and product engineering expertise at Mobile World Congress 2011. The Symbio team will be present at the Axel Technologies Hospitality Suite, 3.1HS157.

About Ethos Technologies
Ethos Technologies offers a range of enterprise solutions built on social cloud platforms based on various Microsoft and open source technologies, all focused on a general goal of helping businesses leverage the huge potential of cloud computing. Headquartered in Beijing, Ethos Technologies is the preferred partner in Greater China on Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. For more information about Ethos Technologies, visit www.ethos.com.cn.

About Symbio
Symbio, a leading software foundry, provides software product engineering and R&D co-creation services to the world’s technology innovators. Symbio specialises in feature-rich software products for companies embracing the digital convergence transformation in communications and technology. For more information about Symbio, visit www.symbio.com.