GoCloud News

Archive for the ‘Cloud Computing’ Category

Sky’s the limit as KC join GoCloud to offer new service

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Mark Conway KC Matt Nunns GoCloud

Kingston Communications has partnered up with East Yorkshire cloud computing experts GoCloud to offer a brand new service which will allow local businesses to tap into 21st century ways of working.

KC Cloud is a 24/7 hosted IT and desktop service that enables firms to access their desktop, data and applications from anywhere in the world. Delivered in partnership with Hessle-based GoCloud, all a customer requires is a simple internet connection, removing the need for expensive on-site IT equipment and servers.

As a result, organisations can reduce the amount of capital expenditure required to maintain their IT systems and enjoy the flexibility and productivity benefits of remote access. The hosted desktop service can be scaled up or down as and when required, so firms only pay for what they need, when they need it.

Mark Conway, Director of Business Services at KC, said: “We are proud to support local businesses and are constantly looking for new partnerships that can help local firms to prosper.

“KC Cloud enables companies in the region to compete with the bigger players on a level playing field.

“By hosting their IT infrastructure in our data centres, firms can reduce capital that can often be wasted on unused hardware or licenses. It also means that the risks and costs associated with software crashes and virus attacks are minimised.”

The service is built upon a secure infrastructure, so there are no concerns about data confidentiality and round-the-clock service and support is also available. The flexibility that comes with a hosted service has also been seen to help firms attract and retain the very best staff, as they are no longer tied to one location.

Matt Nunns, GoCloud’s Managing Director said: “Cloud computing is the future for all businesses and so we are delighted that Kingston Communications has joined our Partner Programme.

“When you are focused on your own business, it’s hard to keep track of the latest releases of software and applications. All Microsoft updates and new application rollouts will be handled by our team of experts, which vastly reduces the time it takes to implement changes.

“It also allows firms to break free from the traditional office environment, by removing the barriers normally associated with managing and funding a remote workforce, or expanding into new territory.”

As all the IT equipment is housed in state-of-the-art data centres rather than on customers’ premises, businesses can also reduce their carbon emissions and adopt a more sustainable way of working.

Cloud Computing and The Hosted Desktop Explained

Friday, March 5th, 2010

There’s still some confusion in the business world as to what cloud computing and the Hosted Desktop actually are – so we thought we would run through the main benefits on our blog.

Lots of people think that because they can already access their work remotely, they can already do what a hosted desktop can do – but these two ways of working are completely different from a technological point of view and there are so many more advantages to working via a hosted desktop!

Applications like “Go to my PC” or “My Workspace” are remote control applications rather than cloud computing. Working “in the cloud” offers better cost savings to companies and is much more secure in terms of data protection. Data is stored in a data centre rather than on an individual’s desktop or laptop, so if a desktop or laptop was damaged or stolen, no private data would be lost because it would be safe “in the cloud” in the data centre. Using remote control applications still means data is stored on the computer itself.
People no longer need a VPN client to gain access to their work data. All they have to do is click on an icon on their desktop and they are instantly connected to their work station as if they were actually in the office, sitting at their desk. It makes flexible working hours so much easier for employers to offer. It also means there is no disruption to business when staff can’t make it into the office. They might need to stay at home to look after their sick child who can’t go to school that day – or it might be because of really bad weather, like the heavy snow we had last month which crippled many businesses.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) warned at the time that the severe weather conditions could cost businesses £230 million per day if they didn’t take steps to allow staff to work from home. That figure was based on one employee per company being off for one day and not working.

Using a Hosted Desktop also makes sense financially. There are no set up costs, in terms of hardware. You pay a monthly fee per user, which includes 24/7 IT support, so businesses can budget for IT costs, rather than pay per hour for IT support, and because all you need is a basic computer or a “thin client”, you use less energy so save on energy bills – and you reduce your carbon footprint!

If you have any other questions or would like more information, please contact GoCloud on 0844 745 3822 or email enquiry@gocloud.co.uk

Partner Programme launched

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

After the successful launch of our Windows 7 Hosted Desktop solution it was only to be expected that many other solution providers would begin saying, “We want that for our customers!”

Well, now you can provide GoCloud’s Hosted Desktop for your important customers via our Partner Programme. The Hosted Desktop Partner Programme is going from strength to strength with a major player in the market ready to roll-out our Hosted Desktop solution to their customers during this April.

The Hosted Desktop Partner Programme offers companies the opportunity to resell our technology or earn a return for referrals. Here’s our press release on the Hosted Desktop Partner Programme.

GoCloud – utility computing for SME’s

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

GoCloud is providing a real world utility computing solution. What is utility computing you may ask? Well, we have the answers below:-

Utility computing is simply providing computing resources on a metered basis, like electricity, water and gas. We aim to banish large capital cost for businesses by providing a monthly subscription model for all of our clients.

In the past utility computing has been restricted to large multinational organisations that had the resources to rent time on server farms owned by other large multinational organisations.

Utility computing has often been used by specific industries to leverage additional computing power as and when required i.e. retail websites to bolster web server capacity at peak periods (Christmas, Easter and Bank Holidays).

GoCloud can now offer virtual infrastructures to organisations from 1 user to thousands of users! get rid of that capital expenditure headache and improve your cashflow.

Get in touch with us to see a demo of the flexibility GoCloud’s Hosted Desktop Service can provide your SME.

Microsoft Launches Windows 7

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Microsoft launch Windows 7 at midnight tonight! The latest, greates version of Microsofts operating system is designed to erase the bad memories of Windows Vista!

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC you’ll need at least the following specification:-

  • 1 GHz or faster processor
  • 1 GB RAM (32bit) or 2 GB RAM (64bit)
  • 16 GB available disk space (32bit) or 20Gb (64bit)
  • DirectX9 Graphics Device

Windows 7 has been designed to address the performance and backwards compatibility complaints levelled at Windows Vista.

Why not avoid the upgrade headache and use GoCloud to provision Windows 7  on our Hosted Desktop Service!

Radio Humberside listeners get anti-phishing advice

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Well, Chris Gooding is rapidly becoming GoCloud’s media star as he makes yet another radio appearance this week. We’re losing count now!

Chris, our sales & marketing director, who is also very technically skilled in IT, appeared on BBC Radio Humberside’s business slot at 7.50 am this morning to give some help and advice to local listeners who are worried about the latest phishing scam that has been in the news this week.

With thousands of victims it is important that Internet users are instructed how to protect their confidential information from criminals ‘phishing’ for their passwords and personal details. Chris provided plenty of advice over the radio but if you missed it here are some more tips on avoiding phishing attacks.

Hear GoCloud on KCFM

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Hear GoCloud’s Chris Gooding on KCFM between 1pm and 7pm on their news bulletins. Chris, our Sales & Marketing Director, is offering advice on how to avoid being the victim of phishing emails and giving away personal, financial and confidential information to criminals via emails and the web.

We have already put some online advice on how to avoid becoming the victim of phishing scams on GoCloud’s blog.

GoCloud promotes cloud computing on BBC

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Chris Gooding, GoCloud’s Sales and Marketing Director, appeared this morning on BBC Radio Humberside’s business slot.

Chris answered questions about cloud computing and GoCloud’s hosted desktop solution.

Chris made a recording of the interview that we will be putting up on this GoCloud website shortly.

If you heard the broadcast please feel free to leave comments or questions below.

GoCloud on BBC Radio Humberside this morning

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

The Sales and Marketing Director of GoCloud, Chris Gooding, will be on BBC Radio Humberside’s business slot, this morning at 7.50am.

Chris will be answering questions about cloud computing and the green benefits to businesses of using hosted desktops.

You can listen to Chris by clicking here.

Could hosted desktops have averted the risk to 43,000 Wigan school children?

Friday, September 4th, 2009

The mainstream media are quick to jump on any breaches of security involving cloud computing, and rightly so as security of personal and financial information should be of paramount importance to any organisation.

However, you are always left with the impression at the end of such stories that the more traditional way on storing the data, i.e. in-house servers and computers would have been more secure.

But the worrying tale from Wigan about the loss of a laptop containing the details of 43,000 local school children highlights circumstances in which a cloud computing and hosted desktop solution would have avoided this situation.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found that Wigan Council breached data protection law by allowing unencrypted data on school children to be downloaded to a laptop that was subsequently stolen from a locked cupboard.

Humiliatingly, Joyce Redfearn, the CEO of Wigan Council, has had to sign an undertaking stating that the council will encrypt data on portable devices in future.

IT professionals will also be worried that so much personal data about children could be downloaded on mass by a council employee.

In fact, the head of enforcement at the ICO, Sally-Anne Poole did comment, “I strongly advise organisations to avoid instances where employees can download large volumes of personal information.”

Sally-Anne Poole continued, “This incident could have been averted if the data was simply accessed from the main council computer network. Storing large volumes of personal information on portable devices is unnecessarily risky.”

However, presumably the employee was in a position where they felt they would have need to access all the information while using the laptop and so downloaded so much sensitive information. Of course, if the information had been securely accessible to users from any remote location there would have been no need to allow this massive or any other partial download of such a sensitive database to any computer, let alone a device as vulnerable as a laptop.

The fact that the laptop was stolen from a locked cupboard also highlights the fact that data stored on a business’ premises is a lot more vulnerable to theft (and fire) than data stored in the highly secure UK data centres where servers used in cloud computing are situated.

Obviously here at GoCloud we would see this as an ideal situation for the use of a remotely hosted desktop solution so that the personal information would not have had to be downloaded to a laptop and yet the remotely hosted desktop would still enable the employee to securely access the information from a home computer or a thin clientin an alternative work location.