Because we enjoyed it so much last year (of course we did!) a newly expanded 1st Easy running team will be taking part in the Bupa Manchester 10K at the end of May…

And this time, we’ve persuaded our leader Steve Bell to take to the streets, where we’ll be huffing and puffing to raise money for the Childrens’ Adventure Farm Trust, who provide holidays for terminally ill children.

If you’d like to help us reach our target of £600 for CAFT, please do visit our Just Giving Page — your help will make a huge difference to disadvantaged children and their families.

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We’re pleased to announce that we have achieved “VMware vCloud® Powered” status with our cloud technology partners, VMware.

This is an important milestone for us and signals the recognition of both our investment in, and commitment to, the leading technologies available in virtualisation and cloud computing.

The VMware vCloud Powered program involves meeting criteria to give customers the confidence that their computing workloads can be easily migrated between their existing cloud/virtualised environments, and the vCloud Powered public cloud service offered by the provider. This direct interoperability allows organisations to take advantage of compatible public clouds like those offered by 1st Easy, to form so-called “hybrid” clouds, and gain the ability to consume computing resources in the most efficient and flexible way possible.

In conjunction with obtaining this status, we’re offering free test drives of our cloud platform: 30 days full access to your own virtual data centre, so that you can get real hands-on experience of the hybrid cloud — after all, there’s nothing like trying something for yourself to truly understand it and the benefits it can bring.

If you’re interested in getting your own cloud test drive, you can visit our sign-up page, or contact us for more details.

Tags: cloud, cloud computing, IT strategy, vCloud, vmware
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Christmas support hours

A quick note to say that our offices will be closed on the bank holidays Tuesday 25th December, Wednesday 26th December and Tuesday 1st January.

As ever though, support for site and server-down emergencies will remain available as normal throughout the whole Christmas period, while colocation customers will have 24/7/365 emergency engineering cover and access to equipment via their established procedures.

…and thank you once again!

On behalf of all the team here at 1st Easy, thank you for your continued custom and support throughout 2011, with warm wishes for a happy, safe Christmas holiday and all the very best for a successful New Year!

Kind regards,

Stephen Bell
Director

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Hot on the heels of the launch of Cloud Utilities (our cloud computing platform) it’s time to announce the next evolution in our range of services: Linux and Windows VMware virtual cloud servers. This new service replaces our previous range of virtual dedicated servers, and as “true” cloud servers, they offer many of the benefits typically associated with larger-scale cloud computing.

Improved reliability:

• The important thing to know here is that a cloud server doesn’t run from a single piece of hardware.
• Instead, it’s part of a much larger infrastructure (the very same commercial-class infrastructure we designed for Cloud Utilities) and draws the RAM, processing power and storage it needs from a large pool of resources.
• This means that if a piece of hardware should go down, it is much easier to recover quickly – your cloud server simply pulls in what it needs from elsewhere in the resource pool, while you (and your visitors and customers) carry on without being disrupted by downtime.

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Tags: cloud, Dedicated servers, servers, vmware
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You’ve chosen your hosting provider (hopefully taking into consideration some of the ideas suggested in our 10-point guide!) and next you need to decide on the hosting platform you’re going to use: should it be a shared account, a physical dedicated server, or a virtual server in the cloud? In this post, we’ll take a look at each hosting type in turn, summarising the benefits of each platform.

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Tags: cloud, Dedicated servers, IT strategy, shared hosting
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Short of trying something for yourself we think these videos from our cloud technology partners VMware, do a nice job of quickly conveying many of the key concepts and benefits of cloud computing for business.

With the selection we’ve shared on our website, we’ve tried to cover a range of interests — from a simple overview of cloud strategy and how it can help an organisation to achieve IT (and ultimately) business agility, through to more specific content such as a walk through tour of vCloud Director with a VMware engineer, and how it is used to manage a virtual data centre.

Take a look for yourself here: Cloud multimedia (learning resources).

Tags: cloud computing, Cloud Utilities, IT strategy, vmware
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Whether you develop bespoke software for specific customer requirements, or deliver specialised applications for business processes or vertical markets, what are the benefits that deploying in the cloud can bring to your business (and your customers)?

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is nothing particularly new — for many software houses, online deployment of applications (or at least some element of their functionality) has become the norm. Customers benefit from being able to access their applications from remote locations, they get streaming updates to ensure they have the latest features and security patches, while the impracticalities and costs of shipping physical media and the related on-site installation (not to mention dealing with platform differences) are distant memories for most.

The advantages to both developer and customer are clear.

However, as more software and solutions are delivered online, these old challenges are replaced by new ones…

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Tags: cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Utilities, IT strategy, vmware
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In the final part of our “Cloud Perspectives” series, we’ll see how cloud is rising to meet a range of challenges faced (and actually posed by) end-users, and changing the way they interact with their applications and access data.

If you missed the previous two articles in this series, you can catch up here: Cloud Perspectives No.1: The Business Owner, and No.2: The IT Department.

The Challenge for the End-User

For the people using the services that cloud delivers, it’s all about getting things done: without frustration, faster, and in the way that suits them best. The end-user wants:

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Tags: cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Utilities, IT strategy
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Welcome to the next part of our “Cloud Perspectives” series. Last time, we looked at the challenges that IT poses for business owners, and how cloud computing can help to simplify and resolve them. This time, we’re getting close and personal with the people that deal directly with IT every day — the teams responsible for procuring, managing and planning IT resources.

The Challenge for the IT Department

This is an interesting (indeed, read “challenging”) time for IT teams. They’re caught in the middle in a sort of paradox: under pressure from business owners to deliver more, but to do so at a more competitive price. At the same time, they’re facing increasing demand from their users and customers, both in terms of improving the quality of service they provide, and managing an ever expanding infrastructure.

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Tags: cloud computing, Cloud Utilities, IT strategy
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Lots of investment, countless hours of research, and months of testing — not to mention plenty of hard work. The fruit of all this endeavour was finally realised on Wednesday at the official launch of Cloud Utilities™, the new cloud computing platform from 1st Easy.

Indeed, it was around eighteen months ago when we laid out our technology road map for the next five years, and cloud computing was a major part of that plan. So, we’re excited to be in a position to help you be a part of this new direction in IT: Cloud Utilities is now ready to transform the way in which you can consume hosting resources from 1st Easy. As the name implies, Cloud Utilities gives you the IT you need, when you need it, for as long as you need it – in much the same way as you would buy gas, electricity and water.

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Tags: cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Utilities
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