08/12/09

1st Easy Limited announces transatlantic partnership with CoSentry to address growing global demand for SaaS-orientated cloud services

Congleton, Cheshire, Dec. 8 -- Internet resource provider 1st Easy Limited announced today that it has entered into formal agreement with USA-based CoSentry, a nationally recognised leader in the Private Cloud Services industry. The agreement allows both 1st Easy and CoSentry to deliver a Common Solution Service Platform (CSSP) in their respective UK and USA datacentre locations.

CSSP allows the two companies to jointly deliver Internet technologies such as private cloud services, hosted application platforms and environments tuned for Software as a Service (SaaS) provision.

1st Easy's Managing Director, Stephen Bell remarked "Our clients are looking for more than just a single point of Internet solution delivery. They increasingly see their commercial online activities expanding onto the global stage and this agreement enhances our abilities to reach the USA online market for our clients, the largest natural expansion area for them." Bell added “Software vendors are increasingly moving to a hosted application or SaaS model; from a global perspective, CSSP supports this trend by delivering their applications from points nearer to their end users."

Cris Freiwald, Vice President of CoSentry Sioux Falls operations also commented "Our clients in the USA are increasingly eyeing Europe as a strategic point of presence and this new relationship with 1st Easy, with their similar strategy and datacentre resources, allows CoSentry to reach new global solution levels for its clients." He continued "Today's SaaS providers demand a global presence and cannot afford historical performance problems. This common platform reduces latency by more than half and assures a solid end-user experience."

The agreement provides for common technologies such as resilient Dell PowerEdge™ servers, EMC Corporation's CLARiiON / MirrorView platform, and VMware's ESX, to be deployed at the right global service delivery point and managed from either Network Operation Centre. Connectivity is being deployed that will also assure consistency of service between facilities with large bandwidth capabilities across multiple access points.

"The demands of an 'always on' economy require a network of 'always on' facilities and the associated expertise" commented Mike Steffan, CEO of CoSentry. He continued "Our alliance with 1st Easy brings another level of performance to our North American clients and creates a seamless set of attributes for our European clientele."

About 1st Easy Limited

“Your Internet Resource Partner” - Established in 1999, 1st Easy Limited provide Internet services for businesses and developers, including dedicated servers, colocation, web hosting, email filtering and hosted Microsoft™ applications. 1st Easy have been recognised as an Investors in People Company, and have been awarded the South East Cheshire Enterprise "e-Business" of the year title.

Contact:

Stephen Bell, Managing Director
1st Easy Limited
0808 222 2221

About CoSentry

CoSentry serves as a one source provider of business continuity and managed technical services. Founded in 2000, CoSentry provides Systems, Work Group, Print and Mail Recovery solutions. In today’s ALWAYS ON business environment, market leaders benefit from CoSentry’s world-class services to keep their businesses running – no matter what. The company also provides diverse and robust collocation and managed Internet services. CoSentry is headquarted in Omaha, Neb., with network centres in Omaha, Kansas City, Mo., and Sioux Falls, S.D.

Contact:

05/12/09

1st Easy partner with Microsoft WebsiteSpark™ initiative

Congleton, Cheshire, Dec. 5 -- 1st Easy have entered into formal agreement with Microsoft as a WebsiteSpark™ Network Partner. WebsiteSpark is an initiative from Microsoft that has been designed to kick-start web development projects by offering free software, technical support, professional training and marketing visibility to professional web developers and designers.

Once enrolled, qualifying individuals and companies ("Web Pros") are eligible to receive free Windows Server 2008 Web Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Web Edition to run on their dedicated server platform of choice. Microsoft development tools such as Visual Studio and Expression Studio are also provided free of charge.

In addition, Web Pros become part of the wider WebsiteSpark "ecosystem", which links them with potential clients, partners, and other Web Pros that offer complementary technologies. Members of the community can benefit Microsoft marketing assistance, which is coupled with customer showcases and a Web App Gallery to drive demand toward their services and solutions.

Brian Harthill, manager of Windows services at 1st Easy commented: "WebsiteSpark comes along at the perfect time for developers, as projects which had perhaps been postponed during 2009 cutbacks are being revisited in view of a much healthier outlook. Add to this the fact that the New Year is traditionally a time associated with new ventures, and the extra visibility and reduced costs that WebsiteSpark offers will have a really positive impact on the uptake of web projects".

News archive

News articles in reverse chronological order (most recent first)

19/10/09

A decade of Internet experience

Congleton, Cheshire, 19th October, 2009 -- Established at the height of the Dot Com Boom in 1999, Congleton based Internet resources company 1st Easy Limited are celebrating their tenth anniversary at the Business North West 2009 event, taking place at Manchester Central over 28th-29th October.

Located on stand 83 at the show, 1st Easy will be offering jargon-free consultancy on a range of services for companies that want to adopt or improve the use of the Internet within their business. All visitors will be welcome - from the newly initiated taking their first steps online, to established operations that demand very high levels of uptime and scalability.

The company use their commercial-grade datacentre space in Manchester to offer a range of Internet services for businesses, including web servers, colocation, website and ecommerce hosting, spam protection and secure data backups.

Stephen Bell, Managing Director commented:

"It's fantastic to look back and see what we have achieved over the last ten years - from our early days as a tiny start up to where we are now, supporting corporate customers from around the world. An event such as Business North West is ideal for us to celebrate our achievements, and we’re looking forward to sharing our experience with local organisations to help them fully realise the potential that the Internet can offer their businesses.”

15/10/08

1st Easy launch remote backup solution for home and office computers

Congleton, Cheshire, 1st October, 2008 -- "ProVault", the new remote backup service from 1st Easy Ltd, provides an entry point to Disaster Recovery (DR) planning previously only within reach of larger organisations.

Automatic, cross-platform and scalable: ProVault protects individual laptops and entire office suites of PCs by automatically backing up important documents and settings in near real-time (Near Continuous Data Protection) over the Internet to storage servers located in a secure datacentre.

The near-continuous backup feature means that several "point in time" data recovery options are available, minimising disruption in the event of computer equipment loss or failure.

The backup and safe storage of business critical data forms a vital part of any Disaster Recovery or Business Continuity plan, and many organisations conform to this by storing backup data on local (on-site) systems. However, in the event of equipment theft or an office fire, backups stored in this way are likely to be destroyed or difficult to access, resulting in lost data and considerable time and expense involved with recovery.

To eliminate these risks, the ProVault service works by sending the backed up data over the Internet to reside on specialist off-site backup storage vaults which are housed within a purpose built, secure datacentre facility.

06/10/08

1st Easy Blog launched

Introducing the 1st Easy Blog - a new way of keeping up to date with the latest news, service announcements and latest offers from 1st Easy.

01/09/08

Work your way: 1st Easy revamp Linux dedicated server range

1st Easy have launched a revamped dedicated server range to offer greater flexibility, management control, and the introduction of a new "Enterprise Plus", high-specification system. Highlights of the new line up include:

• Choice of Linux OS: including 32-bit/64-bit versions of CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu and Debian.
• Free 24/7 access to a remote power switch, allowing the system administrator to power-cycle the machine from a browser.
• The "Enterprise Plus" high specification system, featuring dual Quad Core Xeon 2.3GHz processors (8 CPU cores), 8Gb RAM and 2 x 500Gb hardware RAID hot-swappable disk drives.

Tim Littlemore, Operations Manager at 1st Easy comments:

"Quite naturally, we're increasingly finding that our dedicated server customers have a specific wish list in terms of exactly what they require from a technical perspective. Rather than force developers down a set path -- with a fixed OS for example -- we're giving our customers the freedom to work within the environment they feel most comfortable with, by offering a range of the most popular, stable Linux distributions."

16/01/08

1st Easy contracts further capacity within Renolds House business-class datacentre

13/09/06

£1/2 million, 5 year contract for Manchester colocation space at premier Reynolds House datacentre

Today, 1st Easy signed a 5 year, £1/2 million contract to expand its colocation facilities in Reynolds House, Manchester, the North UK's leading datacentre facility.

The contract ensures low cost colocation space availability for 1st Easy and its customers over the next 5 years and will help meet the continuing demand for premier colocation space in Manchester. Stephen Bell, Managing Director of 1st Easy comments:

"This is an exciting time for 1st Easy and the size and commitment of this contract provides further proof of the scale and strength of our company."

The procurement will allow 1st Easy to continue to expand its colocation, dedicated server and hosting services for the foreseeable future and will give the company an overall capacity of around 80 cabinets of space and power.

About 1st Easy Limited

“Your Internet Resource Partner” - Established in 1999, 1st Easy Limited provide Internet services for businesses and developers, including dedicated servers, colocation, web hosting, email filtering and hosted Microsoft™ applications. 1st Easy have been recognised as an Investors in People Company, and have been awarded the South East Cheshire Enterprise "e-Business" of the year title.

Contact:

Stephen Bell, Managing Director
1st Easy Limited
0808 222 2221

01/09/06

1st Easy acquire a 24% share of Internet Connections Limited

Today, 1st Easy acquired a 24% stake in Internet Connections, making Internet Connections a partial subsidiary of the Company.

The acquisition by 1st Easy is seen as mutually beneficial to both companies and their respective customers. Stephen Bell, Managing Director of 1st Easy comments:

"Internet Connections, as a partial subsidiary of 1st Easy, will broaden our product portfolio and lead to 1st Easy being seen as a more complete Internet and network services provider."

The procurement will allow 1st Easy to benefit from the networking solutions of Internet Connections, such as IP Transit, Metro Ethernet, network security and bonded Broadband solutions, whilst at the same time, Internet Connections will equally benefit from the support infrastructure and security of being a partial subsidiary of 1st Easy.

Andy Harding, Managing Director of Internet Connections further comments:

"This is an exciting time for our company and I welcome the management experience and infrastructure of 1st Easy, in assisting Internet Connections in its continued success and growth."

About 1st Easy Limited

“Your Internet Resource Partner” - Established in 1999, 1st Easy Limited provide Internet services for businesses and developers, including dedicated servers, colocation, web hosting, email filtering and hosted Microsoft™ applications. 1st Easy have been recognised as an Investors in People Company, and have been awarded the South East Cheshire Enterprise "e-Business" of the year title.

Contact:

Stephen Bell, Managing Director
1st Easy Limited
0808 222 2221

About Internet Connections Limited

01/09/06

1st Easy appoints Fred Stone as Chairman

1st Easy are delighted to announce the appointment of Fred Stone to its Board as Chairman.

The appointment further strentghens the Board of 1st Easy and enhances the experience and direction of the team. Fred has sat on the board of several companies, bringing significant experience and business skills to the table.

Said Stephen Bell, Managing Director:

"I am delighted to have Fred on Board as Chairman. His business acumen and proven abilities to successfully grow a company and keep it under strong financial control, will be a big asset to 1st Easy moving forward."

The Board is now made up of:

• Stephen Bell, Managing Director: responsible for the overall Sales, Marketing and Customer Services operations
• Vivien Bell, Finance Director / Secretary: responsible for the Finance and Administration elements of the business
• Fred Stone, Chairman: responsible for Board co-ordination, over-seeing of the direction of the Company and as advisor to the Board

Together, this team is tasked with the continued to growth of the Company (which currently has a 50% increase in turnover for the half year to 30th June), maintaining high customer service standards, whilst at the same time, keeping its financial measurements well under control.

01/05/05

Investor in People Status Awarded

1st Easy Limited are proud to announce that they have been awarded Investor in People status.

Measured against a rigorous National Standard, The Investors in People Standard is a business improvement tool designed to advance an organisation's performance through its people.

Investors in People is central to helping employees become customer focused enabling organisations to effectively meet customers needs.

About 1st Easy Limited

“Your Internet Resource Partner” - Established in 1999, 1st Easy Limited provide Internet services for businesses and developers, including dedicated servers, colocation, web hosting, email filtering and hosted Microsoft™ applications. 1st Easy have been recognised as an Investors in People Company, and have been awarded the South East Cheshire Enterprise "e-Business" of the year title.

Contact:

Stephen Bell, Managing Director
1st Easy Limited
0808 222 2221

About Investors in People

Investors in People UK was formed in 1993 to take national ownership of the Standard, protect its integrity and ensure its successful promotion and development. From business development to employee relations, Investors in People can help with improving working life.

25/02/05

1st Easy win South East Cheshire e-Business Award

1st Easy Limited today won top honours in the local South East Cheshire Enterprise business awards, picking up the e-Business Award 2005 title. The event, held at Cranage Hall, was attended by over 200 top business people in the local Congleton Borough area.

1st Easy Limited were put forward in two categories: eBusiness and Investors in People. The Company was judged to be best in category by a panel of experts from the local business community, including South East Cheshire Enterprise, Business Link, Siemens and the local Congleton Chamber of Commerce.

Stephen Bell, Managing Director commented:

"This is the first time 1st Easy has been recognised as a quality business on a formal basis. It's great honour and I would like to thank all those involved in supporting 1st Easy, organising the event and making this achievement possible. At the end of the day, it's recognition of the hard work and attention to detail that our staff put in, every single working day."

About 1st Easy Limited

“Your Internet Resource Partner” - Established in 1999, 1st Easy Limited provide Internet services for businesses and developers, including dedicated servers, colocation, web hosting, email filtering and hosted Microsoft™ applications. 1st Easy have been recognised as an Investors in People Company, and have been awarded the South East Cheshire Enterprise "e-Business" of the year title.

Contact:

Stephen Bell, Managing Director
1st Easy Limited
0808 222 2221

Latest news and press