Extract taken from Cloud Pro

Managed service provider offers a new cloud service with location in mind.

Claranet today launched a new cloud service, with a strong focus on keeping your data in the location you want.

Companies are increasingly under pressure from regulators to keep their data in specific regions or countries, whilst the fear of not knowing where data is being held has stopped many from adopting cloud services.

Claranet is using this to sell its product – Virtual Data Centre – telling users it can store both its applications and data in its chosen countries, running on hosted enterprise level IT infrastructure.

Its own survey showed 85 per cent of businesses citing data security as the “biggest risk factor” of moving to the cloud. Rather than accessing the cloud services over the internet, the former ISP is offering companies the option of connecting to its infrastructure using their own private wide area network, removing fears of latency and even more security issues.

Although some would say this detracts from Virtual Data Centre being a ‘cloud’ service, the firm is keen to promote its other aspects synonymous with cloud computing – a self-service portal to manage IT, instant access to infinite resources and 24/7 support.

“Many businesses start out by just using the cloud for web hosting a mass-market service provides everything they need,” said Michel Robert, managing director of Claranet UK. “But as these businesses become more comfortable with the cloud, they often want to reap some of the other benefits – and place business applications in the cloud.”

“However, these may need much higher availability and have specific data protection requirements that the mass-market cloud may not meet.”

“On the other hand, enterprise cloud is designed to work with enterprise-grade IT systems, which means it is more resilient, and compatible with a wider range of IT components” he added.

“The Claranet Virtual Data Centre is a different proposition, delivering a network-integrated cloud – so that users can connect to their cloud solution with their private wide area network without using the public internet for connectivity.”

Find out more

• To see the full article, go to: Cloud Pro: Claranet goes cloud with Virtual Data Centre
• To see the Press Release, go to Claranet launches next generation cloud service
• For more information about or to see a Video Demo of Claranet’s new cloud service, see Virtual Data Centre

Extract taken from Computer Business Review

Users are provided with resilient hosting, guaranteed resources and persistent storage, says the company.

Managed services provider Claranet has launched Claranet Virtual Data Centre, a new cloud computing service based on the delivery of enterprise-class services, fully integrating computing and network provisioning.

The new service is hosted in tier-3 equivalent data centres and it delivers guaranteed service levels ensuring high availability, low network latency, 24×7 local language support and addresses the key proposition of cloud deployments: the ability to control costs, scalability and speed of implementation, said the company.

With Claranet Virtual Data Centre, users are provided with resilient hosting, guaranteed resources (vCPU, vRAM and vStorage), and persistent storage and organisations can migrate to the cloud via its self-service portal.

With the single portal, end-users can manage both dedicated and shared cloud platforms from a single-pane-of-glass.

The cloud portal also delivers server and resource provisioning on-the-fly, as well as an ability to migrate from an existing virtual server platform into the Claranet Virtual Data Centre.

Claranet UK managing director Michel Robert said Claranet is delivering to a solution that is built entirely around the needs of the user.

Claranet¹s Virtual Data Centre is built on four key principles: security and reliability, based in the country of the customer’s choice all with access to the first of up to six European nodes, with ease of network integration and a platform that is hypervisor-agnostic to facilitate migration,

said Michel Robert.

Find out more

• To see the full article, go to: Claranet launches new cloud computing service for enterprise class hosting
• To see the Press Release, go to Claranet launches next generation cloud service
• For more information about Claranet’s new cloud service, or to see a Video Demo, see Virtual Data Centre

Extract taken from ZDNet

Managed services provider Claranet has announced a hypervisor-agnostic rentable cloud service.

The Claranet Virtual Data Centre launched on Wednesday with one data centre in the UK and plans for five further facilities across Europe. The infrastructure-as-a-service cloud allows companies to rent and control storage, servers and networking.

Our offering brings together computing and network provisioning, which delivers lower connectivity costs and increased choice. Claranet’s Virtual Data Centre is built on four key principles: security and reliability… ease of network integration and a platform that is hypervisor-agnostic to facilitate migration.

said Michel Robert, Managing Director, Claranet UK

The cloud has a software orchestration layer that lets the infrastructure-as-a-service cloud host hypervisors of different types, Martin Saunders, Claranet’s Marketing Director, told ZDNet UK. Full technical details were not available.

It’s only reasonable to think that the hypervisor market will become more competitive as time goes by, so building hypervisor agnosticism into the platform is vital to ensure that we can give customers as much flexibility as possible in the future.

said Martin Saunders, Marketing Director, Claranet UK

The service presents customers with a management console that shows their overall cloud infrastructure and how it connects through to other parts of their IT stack. When all six datacentres are running customers will be able to set policies that keep data in any of the host countries, which will be London, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands

Companies ranging from Amazon through to IBM operate clouds with similar characteristics to Claranet. The London-based company hopes to differentiate itself with its hypervisor technology.

The cloud is priced according to use of IT assets — virtual CPUs (vCPUs), RAM and storage, rather than bandwidth — and changes according to the various bundles and deals you can select. A single server running Windows Server 2008 R2 with two vCPUs, 100GB of disk-based storage, 2GB of RAM and one public IP address would cost £80 per month or £0.18 per hour, if being used in a burst capacity, Saunders said.

Find out more

• To see the full article, go to: Claranet launches hypervisor-agnostic cloud
• To see the Press Release, go to Claranet launches next generation cloud service
• For more information about Claranet’s new cloud service, or to see a Video Demo, see Virtual Data Centre

Extract taken from Tier1 Research

Analyst: Daniel Beazer

Claranet has unveiled its long-awaited IaaS product, Virtual Data Centre. The pan-European hosting and network provider came to the market last year with Managed Virtual Hosting, a tiered (dedicated, shared, etc.) offering. That suite was well received by Claranet’s SMB and mid-tier enterprise customers and prospects, and building on that success, Claranet is bringing out an even cloudier product with Virtual Data Centre (VDC).

A self-service portal enables enterprises to set up and configure their virtual machines or resources within minutes. The familiar features of scalability, usage billing and the like are all there. So far, so cloud, but what makes the launch more interesting (if a little less cloudy) are the features that make VDC different from what is offered elsewhere in the market.

To start with, Claranet VDC is not as hardware agnostic as a true public cloud offering is, such as Amazon Web Service’s EC2 or S3. VDC is aimed at enterprises from small to mid-tier, and Claranet wanted to give its customers and prospects the comfort of an environment that was populated by familiar, trusted vendors. So we are pointed to Dell and NetApp, along with Cisco on the network side and VMware and Microsoft.

Then there is the local aspect of the Claranet cloud. Claranet carried out an extensive survey of its target customer base and found out that while SMEs to mid-tier are interested in migrating data and applications to the cloud, most want to keep the data and applications geographically close by. Consequently, Claranet is building out country by country in Europe, and adding local language support to local infrastructure. Similarly, on the network side, Claranet’s customers were looking at moving workloads to the cloud but needed to do that in a way that did not punch holes in their existing infrastructure, creating security and compliance risks. So Claranet has closely integrated VDC to its network, making it easy for users to connect to the pan-European carrier’s MPLS network.

Finally, Claranet’s intention is to keep its cloud platform open, facilitating migration to and from VDC. So while the company has been long associated with VMware, it has adopted a hypervisor-agnostic stance, with the platform shortly to be opened up to Microsoft’s Hyper-V. It’s an approach T1R believes we will see more and more in the service provider world in 2012.

T1R take

T1R welcomes Claranet’s Virtual Data Centre, and particularly the solid preparation and thinking that have gone into the final product. Tier1 Research’s Daniel Beazer was present and spoke at the launch and there was a strong level of interest from the customers and prospects in the room.

It is refreshing to see a service provider taking the approach of ascertaining needs and building a product around them. Lastly, service providers should notice the similar level of care Claranet takes with its language and nomenclature. There is hardly a mention of the word ‘cloud’ in the collateral, and as with Managed Virtual Hosting suite, the products’ titles give everyone a good idea of what the product actually does. Quite a contrast to some of the ‘cloudwashing’ out in the market, and one that will make life easier for Claranet’s customers and prospects. If it becomes a trend – who knows – it might even put us analysts out of a job.

Reproduced by permission of 451 Research; copyright 2011. This report was originally published within 451 Research’s Daily T1R service.

Find out more

• To see the full article, go to: Tier 1 Research: Claranet opens Virtual Data Centre
• To see the Press Release, go to Claranet launches next generation cloud service
• For more information about Claranet’s new cloud service, or to see a Video Demo, see Virtual Data Centre

Key appointment for the company as it extends its product portfolio

Claranet, the managed services provider, has appointed a new Operations Director for its UK business. With over 20 years’ experience in Telecommunications and IT services, Wiebe Nauta has joined the UK management team, following an eight-year period at BT.

Claranet’s Operations Director plays a critical role in managing the entire customer lifecycle experience – from design through implementation and ongoing support for the company’s networking and hosting customers.

His previous role as Service Operations Director for BT Business encompassed networking and IT and services provisioning for UK businesses. Prior to this, he was based in his native Netherlands, acting as BT Global Services’ Head of Service Assurance for Benelux and Nordics, a role that put him in direct and regular contact with the company’s customers across a range of industries.

Michel Robert, Managing Director, Claranet UK, stated:

The importance of this role for Claranet cannot be underestimated as we pride ourselves on our service delivery for our customers. We needed an individual with an impeccable background in the industry, someone with an acute understanding of the requirements our customers throughout the life-cycle of their service. With a background in the telecoms, networking and hosting sectors, Wiebe’s experience in working to deliver against customers’ expectations is a huge asset to the company, particularly at this time as we roll out a suite of new solutions.”

Wiebe Nauta added:

I have joined Claranet UK at a tremendously exciting time, as it is preparing to launch a host of new service offerings – one of the key reasons I was drawn to the company. I believe that I can make a real and lasting impact on the way Claranet interacts with its customers, so I am naturally delighted to have joined such a fast moving and agile organisation.”

Wiebe has over 20 years’ experience in working with not only BT, but also Colt and Dutch carrier KPN. He has a degree in Computer Sciences and an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management.

Three year relationship signed with the charity’s Internet and Media Leadership Group

Claranet, the managed services provider, has joined The Prince’s Trust Internet and Media Leadership Group (IMLG) which brings together broadcasting, publishing, internet and media firms who want to give disadvantaged young people a new start in life.

Claranet has joined firms such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook in the IMLG to help tackle record youth unemployment levels in the UK.

The fundraising and networking forum has raised more than £730,000 for The Prince’s Trust in just over a year, helping young people into jobs across the UK.

Michel Robert, managing director, Claranet UK, stated:

We are delighted to be able to support The Prince’s Trust by actively participating in its Internet and Media Leadership Group. Claranet has a strong history of supporting charities, which have included Childline and more recently SOS Children’s Villages. The Prince’s Trust therefore was an ideal partner for Claranet, given our historic support for young people as they rebuild their lives,”

“With one in five young people in the UK not in work, education or training, youth unemployment costs the UK economy an estimated £155 million a week in Jobseeker’s Allowance and lost productivity.

We hope our support will address this by playing an active role in fundraising. The Prince’s Trust itself gives practical and financial support to the young people who need it most by developing key skills, confidence and motivation, enabling young people to move into work, education or training,” he added.

Sarah Hertzog, Head of Business Development at The Prince’s Trust, added: “The Internet and Media Leadership Group (IMLG) has seen its membership rapidly grow since its inception in 2010, and now welcomes one of the most dynamic brands in the UK market.”

Having Claranet’s support is a fantastic coup for the IMLG and it is hoped that a dynamic and innovative relationship can be formed so that we can help even more young people into jobs across the country.”

Youth charity The Prince’s Trust helps change young lives. It helps 50,000 vulnerable young people each year, giving them the skills and confidence to find a job. The Prince’s Trust needs to raise almost £1 a week to continue its vital work. Last year, more than three in four young people on Prince’s Trust schemes moved into work, education or training.

• Managed services provider offers live demo of its self-service hypervisor-agnostic cloud service
• Market intelligence firm Cogenta named among first paying customers for Claranet VDC

Visitors to Cloud Expo Europe will get a public look at Claranet’s new Virtual Data Centre, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering that enables users to self-provision their own virtual data centre at the click of a mouse, and is designed to meet the demands of the modern enterprise and mid-sized businesses.

The service gives IT managers total control of their computing resources through a self-service portal that enables full visibility and management of their cloud compute, storage and networking resources. Claranet’s Virtual Data Centre also features fully integrated private networking to deliver high performance computing resources directly into a business’s wide area network.

Claranet will be giving live demonstrations of the new service at Stand 431, where customers can set up their own virtual data centre in just a couple of minutes, and discover how VDC can simplify their IT infrastructure.

The service is the result of Claranet’s exhaustive research into users’ business needs and concerns about migrating to the cloud, with the company having surveyed 300 senior IT decision-makers across a range of industries.

Michel Robert, Claranet’s UK Managing Director said:

Our research has highlighted that users have three major concerns: about data security, especially where data resides; about reliability; and finally, ease of migration and vendor lock-in. Claranet’s Virtual Data Centre meets these concerns head on.

The VDC physical infrastructure is built on best-of-breed, enterprise-grade technology, and hosted in tier-3 equivalent data centres to ensure the highest possible availability. All users, applications and data always reside in the customer’s chosen country, to reflect data ownership and sovereignty concerns, while the entire platform is hypervisor-agnostic, to facilitate migration and eliminate the threat of vendor lock-in. Finally, VDC is fully integrated with Claranet’s network so users can connect to their cloud with their own private wide area network, without having to rely on the public internet – or a third party – for connectivity.

Since the service launched last month, Claranet has seen very enthusiastic feedback, with numerous customers requesting to trial the service, and launch customers already on board including market intelligence firm Cogenta, providers of real-time pricing data to the UK’s biggest retailers.

• Price intelligence firm is among first customers for Claranet’s Virtual Data Centre service

Market intelligence firm Cogenta has migrated key elements of its IT infrastructure into a virtual data centre that it provisioned itself – with only a few clicks of a mouse.

Cogenta is among the first customers for Claranet’s Virtual Data Centre (VDC) service, which launched last month. The new service has enabled Cogenta to build its own virtual data centre through a self-service portal where it can add compute, storage and networking resources within seconds via a simple drag-and-drop.

The 24 month contract with Claranet is billed on a monthly basis, but provides a “burst” option for periods of high demand, ensuring that Cogenta only pays for the resources that it is currently using. Claranet fully manages the delivery and availability of all resources on the platform, including integration with their own MPLS network.

Cogenta’s Chief Technical Officer, Yann Cluchey, said:

We supply real-time pricing data to the UKs biggest retail brands and our reputation depends entirely on our ability to provide the most up-to-date information to our customers. Reliability and uptime is therefore absolutely critical, and any downtime could be disastrous. But while our previous hosting service was robust, it was time-consuming and expensive to add new resources; we also spent considerable time and resources on managing the servers.

With Claranet’s Virtual Data Centre, we can provision new resources quickly on an as-needed basis, with a couple of clicks of a mouse.

This enables us to expand our server infrastructure without capital expenditure, ensuring that we have optimum availability for the services on which our customers rely. What’s more, because Claranet fully manages our resources and hardware, we don’t lose time and productivity from having to diagnose and fix any problems that may occur.

Claranet launched its VDC service in December 2011 after exhaustive market research into users’ concerns surrounding Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings, as the company’s UK managing director, Michel Robert, explains. “Our research found that customers were most concerned about data security, and in particular where data resides; ease of migration; and reliability. These findings greatly influenced the design of the service: to ensure reliability, VDC is based on best-of-breed technologies and integrated with Claranet’s own network; all data is held in local data centres; and the platform is hypervisor-agnostic to facilitate migration.

“Because the Virtual Data Centre brings together computing and network provisioning, customers like Cogenta benefit from a single-point-of-contact for all enquiries; a single provider with responsibility for the end-to-end service; and service level agreements (SLAs) based on overall availability,” concluded Robert.