Comms Dealer

C4L has named the first three start-up companies to benefit from free services provided under its Business Growth Scheme, which is based on a £1m fund of C4L services offered to businesses in their first year of trading.

By providing colocation, connectivity, cloud and comms services without the worry of finance in business infancy, C4L are helping new companies grow quicker with better IT infrastructure behind them.

A variety of companies have taken on the offer of these free services, including Fusion WiFi which provides simple public Internet access powered by social media; Tree House Computing which built the social journalism platform PAPthis; and Flippie which is building a mobile app for social and work security.

The scheme works by offering a FOC route for companies, that are within their first year of trading, any C4L services they require, up to the value of £10,000.

Adam Troman, Managing Director of Fusion WiFi, said: "To have these crucial business systems put in place without any charge is a huge benefit to really getting Fusion WiFi off the ground.

"Fusion WiFi has now been able to launch huge WiFi projects, showing that C4L's Start-Up scheme really has benefited many others too."

Matt Hawkins, Founder & Chairman of C4L, said: "I have been keen to support new businesses in this way for a while, as I know how hard it is starting a company, so to officially launch the scheme is fantastic.

"To be able to remove barriers entrepreneurs face while working is simple for a company with as large an infrastructure as C4L's but it will make a huge difference to the productivity of the businesses."

Focus Group took on the ice bucket challenge 'en masse' with a quick fire soaking of directors and staff outside their Southwick offices in West Sussex.

Focus Co-owner Chris Goodman told Comms Dealer: "We want the challenge to go viral in the Brighton & Hove area, so we thought we would start by nominating local company Fireco and I.T. Recruitment Agency Focus Select as well as one of our suppliers, Infinity."

Co-Owner Ralph Gilbert continues to comment on taking part in the challenge: "You can try to prepare yourself for how cold it is going to be, but it doesn't quite match how cold it actually is! We hope this challenge continues to go viral and raise much more for the charities involved. We're also looking forward to seeing our nominees get it!"

To donate please text ICED55 followed by an amount to 70070.

To see the Focus Group quick fire ice buck challenge go to:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=823572414343749&set=vb.208046849229...

Teams from the industry's leading dealers and distributers are lining up on the starting grid to help support two great charities, The Princes' Trust and Sparks, in two winner takes all evening Go-Karting events.

The first pedal to the metal challenge takes place in Manchester on September 18th and the second is in London on October 2nd.

Places are limited but there's still a chance to get involved! Go to www.commscharitychallenge.co.uk

Since taking the helm as Managing Director of Cheltenham-based Total in May this year Lorrin White has not only put the company on a new strategic path, she has introduced fresh perspectives and a sense of determination that filters through to all levels of the business.

White assumed the role of Managing Director following a 12 year stint overseeing the operational side of the business, seven years as a Director. She took over from Stuart Baikie who mainly helmed the company since it was established in 1998. Her promotion signalled a new era for Total based, in large part, on the fresh perspectives she brings to the role. "It was time to take another look at the business," she said. "A task much easier to perform from the helm rather than the hull."

White's experience within Total and externally in a coaching, mentoring and strategic consultancy capacity is being put to good use as she advances new ideas on team development. "I know most of the team very well," she added. "As leaders, it is our responsibility to nurture people and prepare them for their own future success."

White's involvement in an executive training group has enabled her to recognise her personal aspirations as well as what she wants to achieve in the workplace. "This process has redefined the way I want to work with others," she added. "To that end, my own individual approach to running Total has resulted in the development of a strong plan with full staff involvement, and, more importantly, real buy-in."

A root and branch business review, from mission and vision to rewriting the next three year plan, has also been a priority for White. She has overseen the expansion of Total's Focus wholesale channel with the addition of two new tiers, and called it Focus 360. The initiative opens up the programme to smaller resellers or dealers looking to enter the mobile market, and those requiring a higher level of initial/ongoing support in areas such as proposals, sales support, commercial, billing, technical and marketing. "Our partners are able to move from one level to the other without penalty as their experience and customer base grows," White added.

"The expansion of the programme was borne out of an idea brought to us by some old hands in the industry, Andrew and Paul Fletcher, who have since joined the team and are leading the charge with the growth of this channel expansion which provides two further access points for businesses wishing to enter the mobile market."

Total's Managed Partner Programme offers a path for mobile dealers seeking to become resellers, or resellers in need of billing, technical and marketing support. The Focus 360 Partner Programme is designed for existing mobile resellers with their own billing platform and is tailor-made to support the areas of their business to help them grow, from proposals and analysis to sales and commercial support.

"The 360 proposition fully complements our existing Focus channel," noted White. "This is about collaboration and growth for all stakeholders and we want our partners to succeed. In its first six months the 360 programme is already hitting and exceeding its forecast numbers."

The most common talking point when introducing new partners to Focus 360, meeting new customers or recruiting prospective employees is about wanting to work with like-minded people. "We are sold on this belief," added White. "But our interpretation of partnership extends further than just the telecoms sector and industry suppliers. For Total, partnership is the status of a relationship that exists with all the people we work with, in particular our customers and employees."

It is easy to claim the importance of people and partnerships, but at Total this really does form the basis for how it does business, pointed out White. "Our ethos has always been about communicating and caring, and we have delivered this to a certain extent," she added. "But it is only more recently that we have truly started to understand the needs of our people internally. Staff happiness is inextricably linked with business performance."

Total has recruited six additional staff with several coming into brand new roles. Some of these will be involved in its newly framed strategic support team. "We have a clear vision of success which will mean transforming certain parts of the business and there will be more changes at Total in the coming 12 months as we transition," explained White. "This will involve our brand, our position in the industry, innovative software development and some unique partnerships."

White has not been distracted by the fact that she is a woman operating in a traditionally male dominated sector. Instead, she has been spurred by the minority position of women leaders. "If anything, this demographic has encouraged me to develop my career in an industry where I will stand out," she commented. "In terms of what I believe women can bring to technology and telecoms, it is more a case of showing others what is achievable. Women don't necessarily bring anything different to the table. Whatever their gender, everyone has their own individual skill set and attributes.

"While perceptions and even acceptance of women in senior roles can vary greatly, it shouldn't be a reason or excuse to limit your ambitions. My placement in this role is my chance to show other women in the industry that it is actually about what you do."

There was a time when drum riffs and door knocks rang loudly in Mark Furness' ears during the working hours. These days, the CEO of essensys is beating the drum about a sound business proposition based on big advances in user self-service and automation.

Following a stint in the music business as a professional drummer, Furness sought a career change and began to sell cable phone and TV services door-to-door on a commission only deal, a grounding that subsequently enabled him to join distributor Crane on its version of a graduate scheme. "Starting my career 'on the knock' was a great apprenticeship and taught me that sales is all about understanding your numbers," he said. "The more doors I knocked, the more I sold."

Later in his career Furness was working at an ISP in its channel team pushing the recently launched hosted voice service. "While it was a fairly new business model, it was clear that hosted services had huge potential," he said. "Any service that could be delivered, at scale with minimal engineering overhead and which provided an element of self-service would deliver huge customer benefits. I'd been looking to start a new business and in October 2006 essensys was incorporated. We started trading on 1st November that same year."

Key to the company's growth has been its relentless focus on automation and user self-service. "By using our software to automate the provision, management and monitoring of our essensysCloud platform, we are able to dedicate more time and resource to the development of our products and services," added Furness. "Simply put, we invested everything we had into our vision of self-service from day one and have never looked back."

Due to the success of its partner channels the essensysCloud is now supporting over 4,500 UK businesses across all industry sectors. "We have grown top line revenues over 330 per cent in the last 36 months, and as these revenues are underpinned by long-term contracts we can look forward to a future of strong predictable cashflow," commented Furness. "Our most notable growth story comes directly from our user interface JEFF. In the last 12 months, JEFF users have increased their monthly spend by 20 per cent with zero touch from us, enabled by our fully automated provisioning, management and monitoring of the clients' services."

The main changes and challenges within essensys over the past few years have been hinged on the issues of keeping up with the opportunities within its reach. "We're a bootstrapped business in the truest sense," added Furness. "With no VC money or private equity backing we've had to be laser focused on the right opportunities at the right times to ensure we had the cashflows to support the inevitable opportunity costs. We've got a strong balance sheet now that is allowing us to accelerate our R&D investment. To put this into perspective, 50 per cent of our employees are software developers or R&D."

To date, essensys has targeted specific verticals, most notably flexible workspace, and it has enjoyed strong organic growth on the back of this strategy. "We have a proven value and technology proposition and we will be leveraging this into new market opportunities later this year, including an exciting and disruptive UK reseller channel programme," stated Furness. "You could say we've just completed an eight year beta trial and we're now ready for a full GA release."

In simple terms, essensys' orchestration platform automates the complete essensysCloud ICT lifecycle. This includes IaaS, UCaaS, PaaS and SaaS. "We see customers increasing spend with every month without us being involved," added Furness. "They control all of their services via one interface. The key for us now is to leverage our orchestration engine and our service platforms into new markets. We currently have around 50-100 new SME leads per month that we cannot support. In the main these are end users who are moving from our serviced office customers and want to keep our services. So we need a channel to fulfil this need.

"As well as high margin, multi-product long-term revenue streams, we'll also be delivering our channel partners a steady stream of hot leads every month. As we have over 40,000 subscribers on our platform, we benefit from significant economies of scale and our commercial model delivers high margin, monthly recurring revenues to partners. The next 24 months will see us complete the roll-out of our global delivery network to launch a truly global solution. We're also looking to make a number of strategic acquisitions to accelerate our growth."

In the wider market, the trends being tracked by Furness are M2M and SDN. These are technologies that will completely change the IT landscape over the coming years, he believes. "The Internet of Things will drive operating efficiencies across so many industries that new opportunities will appear at pace," he said. "It will be a great time for agile, open and standards-based companies that can support customers' IT teams in their move from functional to strategic enablers.

"I'm also encouraged by the new breed of application and software developers that are actually delivering against customer requirements as opposed to the vendor-led products and services of old. It is refreshing that many vendors are now supporting and encouraging this via initiatives such as standards-based APIs, SDKs and application eco-systems that really allow innovation to flourish."

As well as a vibrant environment for innovation Furness has nurtured a company that encourages the proliferation of staff potential and involvement. "You could say we're like Google on a budget," added Furness. "We've got a fully stocked free bar, pool table, relaxation room with massage chairs and every Friday we have Junk Food Friday when I buy lunch for everyone. We simply all believe and are passionate about the automation of service delivery and customer self-service. This is at the heart of everything we're doing."

Another big driver in the evolution of essensys is the volume of user data that its platforms create. "As we have unparalleled user insight from this data, we are able to develop our products and services much more efficiently," noted Furness. "We're now delivering new functionality and services into the interface every four weeks. This is simply something that would not be possible without the user data to drive this development."

The challenges essensys faces today are the same for any fast growing company - people. "There's a real deficiency in the UK in terms of developer talent, so we've had to adapt our approach to ensure that we can keep up the pace of development," Furness said. "We've now got 32 full-time developers in Hanoi and although I'd much rather they be based in the UK we simply couldn't hire the quality or quantity of developers we needed here."

Furness is currently preparing for TEC'14, the firm's fourth annual conference which this year focuses on 'The Power of Orchestration'. The company will be hosting over 300 supplier, partner and customer delegates for a day of 'inspiration and celebration'. "There will be some major announcements at this year's event and we're looking forward to some great speakers too, with Lord Seb Coe as the keynote," added Furness.

"In five years time I expect essensys to be one of world's leading cloud service providers. I hope I'm still here and playing a valuable role at that point, but the one thing I know is that this company will not carry anyone or anything that is slowing it down - me included!"

Here we look at how Toshiba reseller partner Excell upgrades and manages self storage company Big Yellow Group's extensive comms infrastructure.

Pioneering self storage company Big Yellow Group was founded in September 1998, listed on AIM in May 2000 and moved to the full list on the London Stock Exchange in 2002. The company operates from a platform of 77 stores and when new facilities are built the portfolio will provide approximately 4.8 million sq ft of flexible storage space.

Big Yellow's focus on location and visibility of the buildings and its customer ethos have helped to create one of the most recognised brand names in the storage industry. Every room in every store is individually alarmed, while secure perimeter fencing, electronic coded gates, intruder alarms, PIN code entry and CCTV (which is externally monitored 24 hours a day) provide additional levels of security for customers. Its expansion has been organic and looking for innovative ways to improve the customer experience is a priority. An important component of its customer experience strategy is the company's communications infrastructure.

Big Yellow first purchased a Toshiba phone system in 1998 when it standardised with the Strata DK280, and has continued to upgrade its installed base as and when the need has arisen. During this process the Strata DK280 was replaced by the Strata CT, the Strata CTX and now the Strata CIX. In the latest phase of development Toshiba's reseller partner Excell Group shipped 36 Strata CIX670 systems to upgrade the remaining Big Yellow estate.

Toshiba's flexibility in supporting upgrades to previous Toshiba models when launching a new PBX has made the transitions to the new platform straightforward, with many of the existing components being reused while adding the latest technology such as VoIP. The latest upgrade moves away from traditional digital ISDN lines with the deployment of IP trunks, with the cost savings estimated to make the upgrade self-funding over the next three years.

Big Yellow's nationwide presence was posing challenges in terms of communications. With it operating on numerous sites, its ISDN line rental costs were the cause of considerable expense to the business. Excell Group, equipped with expertise gained through dedicated training from Toshiba, possessed the knowledge and capacity to solve this issue. In place of the ISDN lines, the core network was revamped to feature a SIP interconnect, which subsequently enabled each Big Yellow branch to be fitted with SIP trunking.

On top of the cost-savings that SIP trunking provided, Big Yellow was also able to benefit from enhanced flexibility and manageability. It has also seen customer facing benefits from the move to IP trunking, as IP has allowed Big Yellow to improve the customer experience when managing call flows during busy periods or when the stores are closed. The delay while a call forward is processed by the traditional network can add a number of seconds delay into the processing of a customer call, which does not fit well when the company prides itself on responding to customer enquiries efficiently.

Stuart Grinnall, IT Manager at Big Yellow, said: "The upgrade to a more sophisticated set-up is a big step for us. It will allow us to significantly reduce our business overheads and reduce the number of ISDN channels associated with forwarding calls between sites. Being able to divert calls centrally rather than outsourcing them to a central call centre should dramatically decrease our expenditure on line rental.

"We also avoid the headache and expense of replacing the whole estate in one go and can benefit from backwards compatibility with the systems we already have in place. Excell and Toshiba have enabled Big Yellow take a bite sized approach to the project, gradually replacing the system bit by bit, and avoiding a major overhaul which has the potential to jeopardise operations."

Adept at deploying and scaling SIP, hosted PBX and Unified Communications, Excell is well positioned to share research, best-practices, applications and experience, and collectively create bespoke solutions and drive change. Excell Account Director Phil Jones added: "The sheer number of Toshiba products used by Big Yellow is testament to its compatibility with the customer service values of the storage company. There are now 67 Big Yellow stores which use Toshiba's phone systems and 66 per cent of all products at Big Yellow are from Toshiba.

"Cloud communications is more than VoIP or UC, it's a new way to build, deploy and scale enterprise comms systems. It goes further than reducing equipment costs and providing higher definition services, it provides features that service the bespoke needs of customers and keeps Big Yellow at the front of the field."

In February 2014 wholesale comms provider Entanet received an initial investment boost to the tune of £6 million from mid-market equity investor Mobeus Equity Partners to support the £14 million management buyout led by new CEO Elsa Chen. Here, Chen provides an update on developments so far.

With Mobeus' support Chen has taken the helm and wasted no time in implementing a strategy that puts the concept of 'true partnership' at the heart of the business. Turning vision into reality, she has already advanced plans to build a solid loyal partner channel that is capable of driving steady, stable and sustainable growth over the long-term. "The investment will also support the continuing investment we are making in our network and in developing and delivering new services that enable our partners to offer more choice and value to the widest range of customers," stated Chen.

As part of the transaction Mobeus introduced Non-Executive Director Richard Atkins as investing Chairman to advise Entanet at a strategic level. He has significant telecoms experience and a strong track record in delivering growth in private equity backed businesses. Atkins was previously Non-Executive Director of Global Crossing UK, Morse and MessageLabs Group. Building on Atkins' strategic expertise the MBO has also empowered Entanet with a much greater investment capability. "We've already committed around £1 million of investment in our network, but it doesn't stop there," explained Chen. "We have a great appetite to further enhance the technologies, services and platforms that we offer to the channel.

"The MBO has also accelerated our large, ongoing initiative to significantly overhaul and redevelop Entanet's back-end systems. This is creating a future-proof and resilient platform from which all of our operational and commercial systems run, and which support both our internal and partner facing interfaces. It's great news for our channel partners."

The investment is not confined to Entanet's infrastructure and systems, substantial resources have also been made available for staff development. "We're also focusing on our most important asset - our staff," added Chen. "We're firm believers that quality people deliver a quality service and that happy people create happy customers. It's about capability and attitude. Entanet doesn't stop at winning the customer, we aim to win the customer's heart. We are taking this seriously and have recruited a new Head of Human Resources to help us continue to develop the talent and culture in the business. At the same time we've acquired more floor space at our Telford offices and are currently in the middle of a major refurbishment to provide a spacious, modern, calm and professional environment for our staff."

Entanet's core strength is data connectivity and Chen confirmed plans to build additional complementary services based on this key capability. "Connectivity is a delivery vehicle for so many business applications and we'd like to help our channel to capture all of the opportunities that derive from being data experts," she added. "We will remain a channel-focused wholesale provider that's committed to nurturing and developing our channel partners and helping them grow and succeed.

"The last six months have proved to our channel that the promises we made to them when we announced the MBO have been kept. It's inevitable that sometimes news like this can make customers nervous. However, there's been minimum disruption and our customers continue to enjoy the prompt and flexible channel support that Entanet is known for.

"We remain a wholesale, channel focused, business and if our channel weren't happy we wouldn't be in business for long. Our performance in this first half of the year far exceeded our forecast and expectations and this is encouraging evidence, not only of Entanet's own performance, but also of how well our customers received the MBO and their continued confidence in Entanet."

Chen believes that Entanet's policy for establishing true partnerships is a stand-out factor that will ensure it gets the vote over the long-term. "We aim to truly partner rather than just be another supplier," she said. "We genuinely care about our partners and how they want to work with us. That's why we have built high levels of flexibility and support to enable partners to create differentiation within this highly competitive market.

"We work alongside resellers, providing support, training and guidance, as and when it's required and on a case-by-case basis, to help them achieve growth and success. Our basic philosophy is that without successful channel partners we cannot be successful. That's why we always go the extra mile."

Mobeus Equity Partners Non-Executive Director Clive Austin said: "I am genuinely delighted to be working with such an enthusiastic team. Entanet is a great business and has made a superb start. We're pleased with Entanet's performance over the last six months, and happy to see that the company is comfortably achieving, and in many cases exceeding, the targets and objectives we initially outlined at the beginning of the relationship. It's great to work with a company with such clarity and focus in its mission."

MyPhones.com Managing Director Dr Stuart Marsden has forged a course that nudges the boundaries of what's technically possible, and his latest triumph could set a new standard for hosted comms platforms.

Dr Stuart Marsden feels most at home advancing the frontiers of technology. So much so that operating in unfamiliar territory has become his comfort zone. Pushing the boundaries of what's possible and turning vision into reality is his trademark, and soon the comms channel will recognise Marsden as a true pioneer in the development of VoIP. "I have worked at the forefront of emerging technologies my whole life," he explained. "From designing computers and software that explored 40-dimensional hyperspace in the 1970s, to 3D graphics and CGI animation in the 1980s, and financial services during the 1990s."

In 2003 Marsden was involved in a business that began to look at VoIP. The emergence of SIP caught his eye and he decided to set up a company to develop VoIP solutions. "I approached Simon Gregory, who is the best all-round software engineer I have ever worked with," noted Marsden. "With his experience and my own and my wife, Sarah's, background in business, I knew the three of us had all the skills we needed to get the business off the ground. I was also able to fund the project without the need for external investors, having one company sale and a FTSE flotation behind me."

For the last decade MyPhones.com has been at the leading edge of Internet telephony, quietly developing and delivering state-of-the-art hosted platforms. But VoIP was all about cheap calls in the early days and the technology (routers, connectivity etc) was not fit for purpose. "While the technology matured we continued to develop our platform and targeted a system for SMEs," explained Marsden. "Some of our first customers were satellite-based, and we still do a lot of voice over satellite today."

In 2006 MyPhones.com launched a white labelled version of its platform for one of the larger telecoms companies. This system grew to support hundreds of sub-resellers. "Our submersion in the channel was complete and over the next few years we resisted constant requests from resellers to launch a carrier-neutral version of the platform," said Marsden.

"But by 2010, some of the early VoIP players had fallen by the wayside. While a few companies were trying to bend Asterisk into a hosted platform, it was now clear that a single US-based softswitch vendor was starting to dominate the UK market. These were ideal conditions for Version 2.0 of our hosted platform, one that was carrier agnostic, truly white labelled and more competitively priced compared to PBX and other hosted solutions. Initial interest was even better than we expected, and Altos was born."

MyPhones.com has been able to retain all the agility and enthusiasm of a start-up, but with a solid track record on delivery. "We can demonstrate that we are a safe pair of hands," added Marsden. "We are passionate about quality and operate a 'zero-defect' policy coupled with effective process automation. This means that we have been able to grow our base and still remain lean.

"We do not resell or mark-up products and services that we have not created ourselves. This puts the reseller back in the driving seat, free to select the best products from their preferred suppliers. It also avoids the 'one supplier fits all' model. The importance of this power shift should never be underestimated. This approach creates a market where our preferred technology partners - SIP trunk providers, IP phone vendors, CPE fulfilment etc - can grow as we grow. To date, much of our growth has come from personal recommendations and word of mouth. This is custom we value very highly, but in the next phase of our development we need to be more visible across the channel and to develop our sales and marketing activities."

Marsden's deep experience as a board member of a FTSE company has helped to ensure that MyPhones.com retains the characteristics of a small family run company even as it scales up significantly over time. "I have seen first-hand how staff numbers can get away from you," commented Marsden. "In every large company there is a small core of key people who truly understand the technology around the product. We believe that we can achieve everything we need to do with just that small core of no more than 10 staff, supported by efficient, reliable automated processes alongside effective working partnerships."

These solid foundations are a reflection of the company's financial strength. It has no debt and is 100 per cent owned by the directors. "We own all our equipment in our growing number of data centres outright," commented Marsden. "Our Altos revenues are growing by at least five per cent per month compound and we are adding new channel partners every few days. With a phenomenal pipeline, we see no reason why this should not accelerate."

An increasing number of resellers will choose to grow by using their skills to act as aggregators for their own sub-resellers. On the flip side, the number of companies with the skills and experience to develop and manufacture their own products from scratch is likely to remain low. This is how MyPhones.com will continue to differentiate. "We already hold a patent for technology to mitigate against CPE router issues, and we will continue to innovate," added Marsden.

MyPhones.com currently has live traffic with more than 15 SIP trunk providers, two of which are not UK-based. Expanding overseas would be a natural progression now that hosted telephony is mainstream and the market is becoming increasingly competitive. And at some point, wholesale prices will come under pressure. "As we own all our own intellectual property rights, we are well placed to continue to compete in this new world," added Marsden. "With our Altos subscription charges as low as £1.95 per month for a fully functional seat, some might say we have already started the trend."

Graham Harris, Product Director for Cloud at Daisy Wholesale, discusses the newly Christened Age of Virtual Hosted Desktops, why the BYOD market will be blown wide open and why now is the perfect time for resellers to capitalise on cloud-based opportunities.

There was a time when mainframe computers sat at the centre of a network of PCs providing storage and applications to the office. As computer processing and storage capabilities improved, dependency moved away from the mainframe onto PCs, replacing the mainframe with a central server that was accessible by all PCs. But in a swift turn of events this trend has now reverted back to a centralised piece of intelligence. "From this central hub users can log-in and use the supercomputing resource in the core as their processing power, ultimately making the desktop redundant," stated Harris. "Welcome to the age of Virtual Hosted Desktops (VHD)."

Daisy Wholesale moved quickly to catch this trend and has introduced Hosted Desktop Services (HDS), the latest addition to its cloud portfolio. HDS enables users to access all of their programmes, business systems and shared files, securely on any device from any location. "Because the access runs over a hosted platform the user is free to work from pretty much anywhere and at any time, in the same way as they would from their desktop PCs," added Harris. "Using an individual log-in, users have the ability to move their activity seamlessly between devices. For example, they may be working on a tablet while on the move, but when they get home they may want to continue working on a laptop. This level of sophistication when it comes to flexible remote working will blow the BYOD market wide open."

VHD has hitherto not been a cheap or mainstream solution for resellers. In the main it was the larger companies that employed hosted desktops as a privately owned solution which came with a hefty price tag. But this new model brings hosted desktops to the masses, making it more accessible for the SME market, pointed out Harris. "In the past, the thought of BYOD has sent IT departments running for the hills and there is still a resistance to change," he added. "Multiple devices running different versions of software, all wanting access to business critical data, has presented them with support and security nightmares.

"With HDS, IT teams don't have to worry about the separation of work and personal content on devices. Because it is completely cloud-based it already provides clear separation between the two. It does not pull data onto the device itself, but onto the platform so it alleviates the fear of data falling into the wrong hands. By deploying virtual desktops, a business could move away from the strains of maintaining a complex IT infrastructure and potentially banish the use of tower PCs. As a result, they can reduce their investment demands and capex in the office, satisfy their employees' needs and still operate to full capacity."

Daisy Wholesale's HDS proposition offers packages that represent different tiers of functionality - Gold, Silver and Bronze. On top of these, resellers can choose to add storage and applications depending on the customer's requirements. "This is where resellers can start to build up the value," commented Harris. "Once built through the portal, resellers simply place the order and within minutes the end user will receive an email confirming their log-in details. A desktop can be deployed within 10 minutes. The level of automation available through the portal can help to improve margins and provide an overall improved service for both the reseller and their customers."

HDS enables non-IT oriented resellers to offer an IT solution to their customers. "This is a new opportunity for resellers to promote, and for end users to throw themselves into, especially given the slick ordering and provisioning portal," claimed Harris. "Not to be confused with Microsoft 365, which allows users to rent licenses, HDS provides the processing power too. Although 365 might be an attractive option for companies with an existing infrastructure, and can indeed be used inside HDS if preferred, it does not provide the engine room processes available from HDS."

According to Harris, virtual hosted desktop is the only option but the reality is that most businesses already have an infrastructure in place with hardware and software etc, and the idea of throwing it all out and losing that investment isn't an option. "However, the retirement of Microsoft's support for Windows XP will see some businesses come to a crossroads when choosing the direction of their IT infrastructure," Harris explained.

"Now is the time for these businesses to make the move to HDS. There is a prime opportunity for resellers to offer them a cloud-based solution that future proofs their communications at a predictable cost, while also providing resellers with great downstream revenues."

Businesses are still stuck on 'old world' thinking when addressing security issues. Cloud is different, it requires a seamless approach to security and risk management that understands and manages the new virtual perimeter, according to Garry Sidaway, Global Director for Security Strategy, NTT Com Security (formerly known as Integralis).

Information security and risk management needs to be built into cloud models from the beginning. But the challenge, pointed out Sidaway, is the mix of CPE, data centre and cloud and getting consistent information security controls and management across this complex business environment. "This is why it requires a consistent approach to information security and risk management and one that embeds information security into the overall business," he said.

Security remains the biggest concern facing end users transitioning to the cloud. As an information security and risk management company, NTT Com Security sees cloud security concerns and challenges every day. "Businesses have to understand that they are still responsible for the information and data in the cloud environment and put in the necessary controls and governance to protect this data," said Sidaway. "The other concern is the mix of traditional on-premise, data centre and cloud environments and how to get consistent visibility and information security controls and management across these different environments."

Last year NTT Com Security undertook a global research project on cloud and found that UK businesses were falling behind other markets when it came to integrating cloud as part of their IT infrastructure and moving data or services into cloud. The report suggested that issues like security, compliance and regulation were playing their part in this. "High profile breaches relating to the loss or theft of data stored in the cloud isn't helping to ease fears," said Sidaway. "But as our research showed, even those organisations that displayed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the cloud saw the inevitability of cloud computing. But users must understand the risks and put in appropriate controls and governance to ensure that these risks are managed to an acceptable level."

With many organisations concerned about security and regulation, cloud suppliers need to work harder at addressing these concerns and work closely with customers to help understand their issues and guide them through the cloud process. CSPs and resellers should also be looking to embed information security, compliance and regulatory services into products and solutions. "We work closely with our strategic partners to build solutions and services that help organisations address these concerns," noted Sidaway. "It is not a matter of simply bolting on or virtualising these technologies, they have to be designed and implemented into a coherent cloud architecture.

"We need to move the defences from the perimeter into the cloud, not the traditional network, but the new perimeter of the 'active cloud'. Clouds that can redefine the network in microseconds; clouds that automatically update and reconfigure applications and systems depending on the actual threats rather than what we have seen before; clouds that have information and security built in and can put risk in context to ensure that businesses can work in a world without constraint and fear."

Security is still the number one concern with cloud adoption, but end users are nevertheless embracing cloud because it makes their lives easier, affirmed Sidaway. "The challenge for the businesses we deal with is that in our private lives we use cloud services that we can't use in our business lives," he noted. "The risks are seen to be too high. But with the correct balance of risk and controls businesses can also embrace cloud. There are numerous technology companies and innovations that are addressing these concerns and we are evaluating new services and solutions to meet this new business dynamic."

NTT Com Security's solution, WideAngle Managed Security Services (MSS), offers insight into what is happening at both the network and application layer, providing customers with meaningful information for active threat management. The WideAngle platform provides a single solution for private, public and hybrid models as well as on-premise. Customers can chose a complete managed service model or the SecureCall round the clock telephone and email support service with four levels of support to suit specific requirements.

The visibility customers have of real and potential threats through an MSS model that offers global threat intelligence and shared knowledge and systems, means organisations can take the appropriate action at the appropriate time and get more from their existing security investment. "There is so much pressure on internal resources today, but a third party supplier reduces opex costs while allowing the business to focus on making informed decisions," added Sidaway.

He also works closely with reseller partners to understand what they are seeing in their market segments. "We embed their services into WideAngle MSS to provide clarity and visibility into their cloud offerings," he commented. "We share our experience and knowledge with not only their employees but also their customers, and run education and awareness training sessions."

BYOA (Bring Your Own App) is a trend that Sidaway believes is gaining in momentum. "At the moment, businesses and employees have little or no visibility over the data exchange between the devices they use and the cloud," he said. "Earlier this year our Global Threat Intelligence Report showed that applications pose a real danger to organisations because many applications that send and receive sensitive data to and from the cloud are not being detected by traditional anti-virus software. This means that the security industry needs to step up its game to ensure endpoint solutions are augmented with network malware detection and purpose-built solutions.

"Our threat report without exception found that organisations are still not implementing basic controls. These controls have been the result of years of best practice and can have a significant effect on mitigating risk. Organisations need to test and continue to test these controls to reduce the impact of risk, and individuals need to take responsibility and also be aware of the risks."•