gocloud blog

The final piece of the puzzle in the journey to become Brexit-proof is to ensure your IT business is sufficiently flexible to respond to sudden changes in the SME marketplace.

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Seeing the Brexit deadline on the horizon the UK SME market is likely to be more risk aware than at any point since the last financial crisis, placing greater focus on mitigating risk.

We’re kicking off our 3-part Surviving Brexit series with a topic that is hot no matter what the current political or economic climate might be… revenue.

We know that many of our partners have a strong base of sales expertise. We don’t want to teach granny how to suck eggs, but we thought we’d point out how some of the extraordinary benefits of GoCloud can be leveraged to sell the service.

GoCloud’s UK-based data centres are extremely resilient and secure both online and off. To ensure this, and to let you know that you are in safe hands, we comply with the requirements laid out by ISO 27001.

The dragon that is the Chinese tech industry is ever-growing and its cloud computing sector is heating up.

GoCloud’s Partner Programme offers companies an unmatched opportunity to increase their profits drastically by building a new and reliable revenue stream.

The release of the annual Cisco Global Cloud Index is a major touchpoint for all businesses involved with the cloud, from providers, to sellers, to users.

To quote Aerosmith, “We’re livin’ on the edge”. Yes, that’s how this article on modern trends in computing is going to start and it really is quite apt.

Did you know: The first use of the word “cloud” to denote an area of network to which users could upload, download and share files, altering them as they go, was in 1977.

If you’ve looked around our site, you probably have some idea of what GoCloud can offer you as a seller and your clients as users. What you may not know is how easy it is to turn these offerings into success for your company. To help, we’ve split the process into six simple steps.

With remote working, digitisation and mindfulness on the increase, workplaces have changed a lot in the last few years, and they look set to evolve even more during 2018.

Hosted desktop solutions offer a much fuller and individualised all-round experience than most other cloud-based services, including storage and email. 

One resolution and a year’s worth of reasons to follow it.

Becoming a GoCloud partner gives your brand many boosts, from the valuable freebies we provide to all new partners, right up to the huge benefits to your profile that come from offering top of the range, cutting-edge IT solutions. Here are four of the main bonuses summed up for you.

Soon we’ll be going into a new year and many of you, our partners, will be wondering what's in store for you. No doubt you’ll be pretty confident, and with good reason - 2018 is set to be a positive year for cloud computing, as well as one with many changes.

51% of respondents say they have experienced faster time-to-market as a result of the cloud.

By 2019, more than 30% of the 100 largest vendors' new software investments will have shifted from cloud-first to cloud-only. 

GoCloud’s partnership model lets partner companies concentrate more on their own clients, thereby giving them the best possible service and fulfilling all needs. 

Cloud computing has been one of the areas of fast and furious advancement in IT over recent years, bringing success to tech companies as well as the clients who put these new advancements to good use.

Reselling can add a new and positive facet to your business, allowing you to expand your offering to customers and clients.

It’s great to get something for free, right? Especially when it’s a valuable and useful resource. And it’s four times as great to get four things for free, which GoCloud partners receive as standard.

The accelerated rise in remote working could be one of the biggest changes in British employment since the Industrial Revolution.

A study has revealed that people who work remotely from home can get significantly more work done than their in-office equivalents.

GoCloud is revolutionising project work. Here are four ways that your clients can take advantage of the new way of working.

As headlines around the world turn to Equifax, data security and the dangers that negligence in the field can incur for businesses or private users, it is more important than ever for you and your customers to be sure that their information is as safe as possible.

For many of your customers, migrating to a GoCloud business operating system and network may be the biggest, most important thing they will do.

Adding GoCloud to your offering is a big positive step, allowing your company to solve more problems, attract more customers and increase its income.

GoCloud's many partners are helping to spread the power of remote working across the UK by clearly communicating its benefits, which are wide-ranging and invaluable.

The beauty of testimonials is that they can also be used for all types of marketing activity, from website and social media, to email campaigns and PR.

you’ll be glad to know that we only sell to resellers and not directly to users, leaving us free to focus on working with you, not competing against you.

Due to the efficiency and security offered by GoCloud, everything runs smoothly around the clock for your customers.

Whilst traditional forms of promotion are still important, digital inbound marketing should very much be integrated into your strategy. 

Cloud-based security is increasingly preferred over older methods, and with very good reason.

Here are some pointers on how sales and marketing can set aside their differences and unite in the pursuit of a shared goal.

The advent of cloud computing means that businesses no longer need to cram their machinery and staff into the same place

By adopting the right mindset and taking control of your time, you'll find that your productivity levels and profit margins soar.

Banks, security personnel, IT support staff and authorised sellers will never ask for sensitive information via email.

All of our contracts are monthly and pricing is easily scalable, so as users’ businesses grow, they can quickly and easily add more Hosted Desktops to their package.

Our networks are practically unrestricted by location, bandwidth, hardware type or operating system.

GoCloud offers education centres the opportunity to add and remove users from networks with maximum ease and minimal expense.

If your clients want to be the winners at the top of the pile, they should be buying GoCloud from you.

The threats that we work hard to protect you from vary, but they can be grouped into four categories: viruses and malware, data security, unproductive downtime, and technical errors.

In the UK, 1.5 million people now work remotely, an increase of about 800,000 in the last decade alone. This means that 13% of the UK workforce operates outside the actual workplace.

Memorising features (from 256-bit encryption to how our data centres are protected) is the crucial difference between selling a product and creating a loyal customer base.

GoCloud uses an IS027001 accredited UK data centre. Our products also come with free Symantec anti-virus protection, with failover systems co-designed by HP.

It's important for you as a reseller to explain the financial benefits in a clear and concise manner. To help you achieve this, we've put together some key info below.

By becoming a GoCloud Partner, you can sell our high quality cloud solutions under your own name and branding.

Advanced document control completely removes the need for back-and-forth emails and messages, in turn preventing key points from being duplicated or missed entirely.

when you take into account improved security, collaboration, universal access and daily operations, automatic updates really are a no-brainer.

If all of a company’s machines are replaced with thin clients, the entire business will suddenly use a tiny fraction of its current energy. This is great for the electricity bill, and it also means that the corresponding carbon footprint will be drastically reduced. Decreased power usage creates less pollution, helping to keep the planet clean and healthy.

Disaster recovery is a key benefit of choosing Hosted Desktops. With your full IT setup being accessible from any device, anywhere in the world, employees can immediately resume their work. This means that though your premises or hardware may be out of commission for a while, business downtime is kept to an absolute minimum. 

Despite viruses and unauthorised access proving so destructive, many companies use weak, out-of-date and unsuitable IT infrastructures that might as well come with a welcome mat for hostile forces. 

By choosing Hosted Desktops, a company can still enjoy the full desktop experience that they’re accustomed to, only from any device, at any time, and from anywhere in the world. 

For some time now many businesses have cited security as one of the main reasons not to adopt the cloud. However, a new report has highlighted the fact that many businesses don’t even have the most basic security levels and procedures in place at the business premises to prevent attacks.

Whilst in the early days of cloud it was seen as very much a buzzword, cloud and all of its related services have now begun to take off in a big way. Businesses recognise the benefits that it has to offer – namely that it’s cheaper, more flexible and incredibly scalable. If you’re an IT business that’s recently decided to branch out into selling cloud services such as hosted desktop, then read on for our top tips for selling cloud effectively to businesses.

Remote workers are becoming more common, especially in the tech sector, but what are the benefits of remote workers? And why should you consider using them alongside your office workers?

Gartner recently revealed its predictions for IT in 2014 and two things are very evident. The first is that companies must start preparing for a huge increase in mobile devices in the workplace and the second is that cloud computing will become absolutely essential. The way that businesses share information with employees is changing. Now, much of what we do is carried out online and employees are able to access it from home, on the go, and most importantly on their own devices. This opens up an entirely new avenue for reaching your employees and keeping them in the loop. However, like any road less travelled there are many pitfalls that can and should be avoided.

Cloud computing isn’t a new term by any stretch of the imagination, but it is one that has taken off rapidly in the past few years. Not only this, but it’s also picking up even more momentum as more and more businesses begin to realise the benefits that it offers to the enterprise. SaaS has always been the most popular platform to date and this isn’t going to change any time soon, even though IaaS and PaaS are now beginning to rise in popularity.

Virtual hosted desktops are an ideal solution for cutting IT costs and increasingly employee productivity through the use of collaboration and remote working. Like the majority, if not all, cloud computing solutions, hosted desktops are incredibly flexible, highly scalable and a cost effective way to get the best from today's technology.

Recently I took my annual holiday to the south coast of Spain, taking my laptop and iPad with me (just in case). Whilst there, sunning myself at the villa, I had to connect to the office, as there was something to be published in my absence. It struck me then just how cool cloud computing and virtual desktop actually is. Before long I was making plans to spend the summer there, imagining long hazy days spent typing away in the cool villa, or even at one of the bars on the beach.

IT has changed dramatically over the past decade and is still in a transitional period, when it comes to the cloud and virtualization. Challenges faced in the past have included network downtime, failing workstations and employees forgetting to back up important data. However, times are a changing and the costs and headaches associated with running a business which relies on IT can be significantly reduced by using virtual hosted desktop solutions, especially for the smaller business.

Earlier this month, businesses in Wellington, New Zealand were forced to close following a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, which left many office buildings in the area unstable or under investigation.

Citrix Receiver 5.8 is now out for the iOS family and has brought some bug fixes, as well as some overall improvements to the software. Now you can work with documents on the screen, using gestures such as scroll, pan, pinch and zoom. It’s also possible to use application-specific gestures and the updated software is supported by iOS-based mobile devices running 5.1x and 6.1x. This means that it can be run on the iPhone 4, 4S and 5, as well as the iPad 2, iPad Retina display and the iPad mini.

William Shakespeare famously coined the phrase “All the world’s a stage” in his play ‘As You Like It’. However, 500 years later, the world is no longer a stage – more of a global marketplace. The Internet has significantly reduced the distances between companies and their customers, even when both are located on different continents. Ecommerce websites make ordering a book from the USA as simple as buying one from your local high street store, the only difference being the time taken to have the book delivered.

Citrix Receiver lets you access your enterprise files, applications, and desktops to help you be as productive on the go as you are in the office. If your company uses Citrix, you have the freedom to work on your favorite device from wherever you are. Just ask your IT department how to get started.

There are 49 million hosted desktops in the world, equating to 40% of the professional PC market. We’re at the point where the service is widely recognised and celebrated for its ease, efficiency and affordability, and yet despite its huge popularity there are over 100 million businesses still to join a cloud. A recent study for Microsoft shows that the transference to cloud servers is moving at an exponential rate, to the extent that there are 1.7 million cloud-related jobs that need filling. 

At GoCloud we understand that our partners are not working in the best economic climate. We’re always willing to help though, so we’ve decided to give our partners a boost by introducing the new GoCloud Academy. We want to ensure that you sell not just your hosted desktop services, but all of them. So, whether you’re a technology, telecommunications or IT business, we can help you to increase sales across the board, at no extra cost!

New Research from security firm Symantec, the makers of Norton, has found that there are hidden costs for businesses using cloud, especially with regard to ‘rogue clouds’, by which they mean public cloud services. The survey, which resulted in the report Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud, found that three quarters of all organisations worldwide have had some issue when using rogue cloud. These were often problematic as they caused the loss of confidential information, which resulted in spiralling costs.

Citrix has unveiled a new solution tailored for mobile, which allows users to access work documents, applications and desktops from any mobile device, including smartphones and tablets. The easy-to-install client is available for all popular OS’, including iOS, Android, RIM and Windows, so that workers can use their favourite device at work and when away from the office.

Cloud hosted desktops are really set to take off this year as SaaS becomes more popular with companies all over the world. This is due to growing confidence in the technology as a whole, as time is proving to allay concerns surrounding security and more companies begin to recognise the wealth of benefits that the use of virtual hosted desktops affords them. For technology and telecommunications companies, there has never been a better time to begin selling cloud services, as the below infographic illustrates.

Here at GoCloud, we’re proud to announce that last month we were awarded ISO9001 certification, following a formal assessment by ISOQAR, a UKAS accredited auditor. This reinforces our reputation for providing the best in customer services and standard of products and is an internationally recognised quality standard. This means that hosted desktop resellers can now pass this on to their customers to give further peace of mind that they are dealing with a reputable cloud provider.

What is ISO 9001, exactly?

As the EU looks to boost cloud adoption by imposing certification on providers to ensure trust in the marketplace, today we are going to take a brief look at one such standard in order to ensure that cloud suppliers and customers have a full understanding of what it is and how it can benefit both parties.

Cisco is to introduce a new channel program for cloud and managed services, which will provide partners the ability to streamline existing programs whilst increasing benefits and “offers (sic) access to Cisco's lucrative incentive program points”. The new program, called Cloud and Managed Services Program (CMSP), which is to be officially unveiled on Tuesday, combines two of Cisco’s existing programs in order to simplify the process for partners to receive benefits and profits from Cisco’s cloud strategy.

Whilst we spend a lot of time banging on about the benefits of hosted desktops, choosing the wrong supplier could result in something of a headache for IT administrators, whose job it really should be making easier. Bearing this in mind, we thought we’d take a look at some of the pros and cons that virtual desktops could present if you fail to plan and choose the wrong supplier.

Many computer users and businesses hear the term open source bandied about but don’t really have any idea what it actually means. Read the full definition here, it may confuse you some more, but basically the term means that it’s an open platform on which developers can create their own apps and improve the platform, making it something of an ongoing collaboration.

Working from home is becoming more and more popular in the UK, with more than 2 million people choosing to work this way and rising. As this week sees the snow set in, the benefits of offering workers the option to work from home becomes clearer. Technology has come a long way since the days when connecting to a VPN to access work files was the only available option many firms had. Now, in the days of superfast broadband and BYOD, telecommuting is easier and more secure than ever, depending on the set-up used by a company.

I have a good feeling about cloud computing for the upcoming year and I’m not alone. Now that the technology has begun to take off a little more, security and compliance are becoming less of an issue for many companies looking to adopt cloud services. The EU has also recognised that cloud can seriously benefit the economy, if its encouraged and if nothing else, that’s certainly an area that Europe needs to look at shoring up any way it can.

Since we actually gave you a roundup on last year’s happenings at Christmas, this time we’ll be looking forward to what industry experts are expecting from 2013 in the cloud space. Last year saw a lot of divided opinion on cloud; security and compliance woes (or imagined ones at least) stopped many firms from having enough faith in the technology to fully deploy to the cloud. This year we expect to see this wane a little as more and more regulations are introduced, alongside further work from the Cloud Security Alliance to address this.

Before this year, not many people had heard about cloud computing outside of the IT industry, but 2012 has been a bumper year for all things cloud, especially SaaS, being one of the easiest to deploy. Companies have fretted over whether security in the cloud will be good enough, what to do about compliance, where their data is stored and how much time and money deployment to the cloud will cost.

Since it’s the season to be jolly, we thought we’d bring you something a little more fun from the world of cloud computing this time, courtesy of VMware. VMware’s Festive Journey is now on day 16, but there’s still plenty of time to sign up to be entered into a daily draw to win prizes, as you learn about the cloud.

EU consider new cloud policy, death of the workstation desktop, Microsoft and Apple bicker over iOS app

Researchers at IDC have found that removing barriers to cloud adoption would considerably increase spending in the public cloud. The report, commissioned by the EU, found that changing policies surrounding cloud adoption could increase spending to around €77.7bn by 2020, which is currently worth around €35.2bn.

Amazon unveil Redshift, 28% of cloud providers have disaster recovery, big data and cloud

Amazon unveiled their new RedShift data warehouse service this week at a keynote presentation as a push to provide enterprises with an option for overcoming data migration challenges.

Cisco acquire Meraki, Rackspace announces plans for startup programme, CloudNOW announce annual predictions

Cisco announced this week that they are intending to acquire leading San Francisco-based cloud provider, Meraki, who currently offer “midmarket customers easy-to-deploy on-premise networking solutions that can be centrally managed from the cloud” and has offices in London, New York and Mexico.

Symantec & VMware collaborate on cloud, Google takes on Apple, SMBs storm cloud market, Gartner predicts scant IT spending 2013

Security experts Symantec and VMware have joined forces to provide new solutions offering better levels of protection for cloud computing environments. More than 100 integrations with VMware cloud infrastructure have been made with further encouraging SMEs to adopt cloud in mind.

As you know, if you’ve been reading our previous blogs on the iPad mini, the team at GoCloud received their shiny new devices last week and have been playing around with them ever since. Whilst some may think that a 7” tablet device is no good on the move for professional purposes, we’ve compiled a short video demonstration for you to see how a GoCloud hosted desktops works easily in conjunction with the iPad mini.

We’ve talked before about Apple’s iPads and how good they are as a communications tool, especially with the in-built Wi-Fi and now the fact that it works with EE’s 4G network, if you have it in your area (if not it’s still 3G compatible). This, for some, will basically mean that you are effectively able to access superfast broadband on the go, and in terms of connecting to the office via a hosted desktop, this is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face.

Cisco announce UCS update, Cloud in India grows 25%, Amazon announce Cloud Drive for Android

Cisco Systems has announced two major changes this week; one a “major” update to its UCS platform and the other, which may prove more important to many, is an update to Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud (IAC). The latter now includes more tools for vendors which include more infrastructure auto-discovery features in the cloud management system.

There’s little doubt that this has been an exciting year for both the tablet and smartphone markets. Whilst Apple has continued to dominate with the iPad, competition is hotting up, what with Amazon Fire, Surface, a whole new range of Nexus’ and Samsung getting in on the act too. In the run up to the festive season, this will mean that many will be wondering which to buy. 

AOL Launch Alto Beta; Server chips cut cloud costs, Microsoft and Hortonworks develop Hadoop solutions, SMBs run on business clouds

AOL have launched a new, cloud-based email service called Alto which is designed to work with many of the popular email accounts such as Yahoo, .Mac accounts, Gmail and AO mail, all from a single interface.

Before we go any further, let’s look at a quick explanation of what a thin client, sometimes known as a lean client, actually is. In basic terms, a thin client replaces a bulky PC workstation and rather than keep all the data on a local machine, it requires a server or data centre to work. Thin clients are often seen in banks and post offices and have been around for quite some time, sometimes being referred to as dumb terminals.

Citrix announce latest in Project Avalon, IBM announce new security tools, The Pirate Bay move to the cloud

This week saw the latest Citrix Synergy event taking place in Barcelona, with Citrix unveiling the latest phase of Project Avalon. The company unveiled two tech previews: “Excalibur” and “Merlin” which it’s reported will make up the core of the Avalon project.

Microsoft announce new ‘cloud readiness tool’, London gets cloud incident management system, cloud is future for security say Qualys, shift in cloud use say Lufthansa

Microsoft has announced a new tool which they have developed in order to help enterprises test their readiness for deployment to the cloud. The Cloud Security Readiness Tool is a free resource for IT professionals to use and asks a number of questions designed to test compliance, security and transparency.

Oracle OpenWorld event, OpenStack certification now available

This week has seen the annual Oracle OpenWorld event, held in San Francisco and hearing from a number of speakers over the course of four days. One of the biggest announcements of the event was the news that Oracle are to release their latest version of Solaris.

EC releases cloud strategy, extended Win server 2008 support, IBM announce plans to attract MSPs

Last week we reported on the upcoming European Commission’s release of their cloud computing strategy, which was released on Thursday and was thought to include how the EU can “unleash[] the potential cloud computing in Europe”.

A recent hack carried out on a journalist resulted in him losing his entire ‘digital life’, thanks to flaws in both Apple and Amazon public cloud services. Whilst Mat Hanon, the victim of the attack, admitted his mistake of linking many of his accounts together, he also said:  “what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s”.

Gartner predicts cloud market to exceed $109bn in 2012, Amazon’s Cloud Player launches in UK, OpenStack poised for cloud leadership, EU to urge investment into cloud

Technology analysts at Gartner have predicted that the worldwide cloud market is expected to exceed $109bn in 2012, with the highest growth rate being seen in emerging economies such as India and China. This represents growth of 19.6% this year and it’s thought that the majority of the market will be taken up by business process services (or BpaaS), accounting for 77% of the overall market.

IBM & Polycom in Video Conferencing alliance, HP & Microsoft collaborate on private cloud, Personal cloud expected to hit half billion subscriptions this year

IBM and Polycom have teamed up in an effort to bring video conferencing to the cloud to provide Video-as-a-Service (VaaS). Polycom currently already have a video platform of their own, ‘Polycom RealPresence’, which IBM are now helping to put through a testing program.

VMWorld 2012 Cloud Ops, Red Hat releases beta version of Enterprise Virtualization 3.1, VMware want to virtualize all data centres

Virtualization leaders VMware this week announced that they and selected partners have created a "Cloud Ops Forum to collaborate on industry-wide IT approach".  The new collaboration, which includes well-known tech names, Dell, HP and Insys, is intended to make it easier to access IT managers “help unleash the power of cloud”.

One of this week’s biggest worries when it comes to cloud has to be the news that a new form of malware can attack not only Windows and Mac-based systems, but also can infect VMware. This is the first indication we have had that malware authors may be turning their attention to the cloud, so it’s essential that you choose the right supplier when choosing a cloud solution. Providers should, at the planning stage, ensure that their customers are completely reassured by the security measures they have in place.