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P1 / CLOUD STRATEGY
How do you bring the cloud into your IT strategy?
P2 / INTERNET GRANT
Need a faster internet connection? You could get up to £3,000 to upgrade.
P3 / CASE STUDY
Abtec’s cloud infrastructure transforms leading UK business.
P6 / TEAM NEWS
Meet new members of our technical support team.
ConnectedIS#8 SUMMER EDITION
📰 📣
There’s a good chance, according to recent research, that you
already host some of your IT resources in the cloud.
That same research1 predicts that 70% of
UK businesses will expand their use of the
cloud in 2015.1 UK Cloud adoption snapshot & trends for 2016; Cloud Industry Forum; May 2015
Making the transition to the cloud can be
a task fraught with challenges. That’s why
it’s important to have the right expertise
and support by your side.
In this summer newsletter we’ll find out
how, and why, one of the UK’s leading
car servicing organisations moved its IT
infrastructure into our cloud. We’ll share
how that change in strategy affected the
business.
70% of UK businesses will expand their use of the cloud in 2015
“”
Cloud strategy
>> CONT. PAGE TWO
Cloud strategy
As Microsoft ends its support for Windows
Server 2003 and Small Business Server
2003, we look at alternative options for these
popular business servers.
We’ve also got some great news for
organisations who want to upgrade their
internet connection speeds, as a government
grant scheme expands its remit.
There are many reasons to bring the cloud
into your IT strategy; improving the robustness
of your disaster recovery plan, lowering
costs or creating a more agile responsive
infrastructure, to name a few.
Whatever the reasons for the expansion into
the cloud, our specialists can help you define
and deploy your IT strategy.
Talk to our infrastructure specialists on 01858
438 500 to find out how you could transform
your organisation with our cloud.
>> CONT. FROM PAGE ONE
Businesses in 51 cities across the UK could
benefit from a government grant to upgrade
their internet connection.
Up to £3,000Broadband Connection Vouchers is a scheme
set up by the UK Government’s Broadband
Delivery UK (BDUK) department. Vouchers,
worth up to £3,000, can be used to offset the
installation costs of high bandwidth internet
connections.
Internet services must be faster than 30Mbps
(megabits per second), and can include fibre
broadband, leased lines (including EFM access)
and microwave connections.
FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) broadband
technologies are eligible too. The chosen product
must have an ‘up to’ download speed greater
than 30Mbps; for example our Abtec 40/10 FTTC
service (with a ‘headline’ speed of up to 40Mbps
download) qualifies for the scheme.
FTTC connections qualify for up to £400 in
vouchers; this can help cover the install cost,
complete with business grade Cisco router.
Abtec is an official Broadband Connection Voucher
scheme supplier and we can help you get a faster
internet connection. We’ve helped businesses
around the UK benefit from the scheme.
To find out which areas of the UK are covered
visit our website or ring our specialists on
01858 438 500.
You could benefit from a £3,000 grant to upgrade your internet speed
Superfast Internet Scheme
2
Our sister organisation, Abtec Building
Technologies, has deployed the building
control and management infrastructure
for England’s first 24/7 emergency care
hospital.
Our Building Technology colleagues are at
the forefront of creating smart, intelligent
buildings. Their skills can help buildings to
reduce energy use by automating lighting,
heating and cooling.
Behind the scenes, the Northumbria Specialist
Care Hospital, in Cramlington, has over 9,500
building control and lighting devices. The
team created novel uses of technology too.
Life critical resources, for example anaesthetic
gas volumes, blood bank refrigeration
temperatures and water temperatures, are
monitored on this network. Alarms are
triggered if these resources breech monitored
parameters.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation
Trust’s Northumbria Specialist Emergency
Care Hospital opened on 16th June 2015 and
is the first purpose-built hospital in England to
have emergency care consultants in a broad
range of conditions on site 24/7.
The new emergency care hospital will treat
seriously ill and injured patients from across
Northumberland and North Tyneside and is
part of Northumbria Healthcare’s new model
of emergency care which will help save more
lives and improve clinical outcomes for more
patients.
Abtec provides critical infrastructure for new hospital
Case Study: Cloud Benefits
Established in 1979, Ambrosetti has grown
to one of the UK’s leading vehicle servicing
businesses.
Recent growth had begun to stretch its IT
infrastructure to its limits. John Line, Project
Manager at Ambrosetti, notes “Our IT was really
feeling the strain.”
Data exchangeA feature that separates Ambrosetti from its
competitors is its ability to provide clients with
high quality information about serviced vehicles.
To achieve this efficiently, it needs reliable
communications to build an electronic data
interchange (EDI).
John continues “Our EDI link was beginning to
be compromised. The risk was that if we didn’t
do something about our infrastructure our client
relationships could be affected.”
Cloud strategyThis is where Abtec stepped in. Working closely
with Ambrosetti’s IT and senior management
team, it built an IT strategy that would resolve
current issues and provide a platform for future
growth.
Central to its strategy was the transfer of
Ambrosetti’s IT resources into Abtec’s cloud
data centre. As Andy Beynon, Abtec Managing
Director, points out “Hosting Ambrosetti’s IT
resources in our data centre, enables it to focus
on running its business.”
Abtec’s highly resilient cloud platform, built on
technology from Cisco, NetApp and VMware,
benefits from dual resiliency and a separate
Veeam based backup infrastructure, replicated
to a secondary data centre.
Business transformationAbtec’s cloud has been a revelation for
Ambrosetti; as John comments, “Working
with Abtec has transformed our organisation.
We’ve now got a very robust IT infrastructure
and that has rebuilt stakeholders’ trust in
us. Abtec’s involvement has been critical in
this project. We needed someone to help
support us through this process and the
level of attention we’ve received has been
fantastic. I’d definitely recommend them to
other businesses.”
Working with Abtec has transformed our organisation
“”
3
Windows Server 2003 End of Support
Support for Windows Server 2003 will end
on July 14, 2015.
If you’re still running 2003, what options
do you have?
4
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 was an immensely popular business server. For many of us it was the first ‘proper’ server we owned. But, by the middle of July, patch and security updates will no longer be provided. Lack of updates and support could leave the server vulnerable to attack. So what are the options and what’s the best route to take?
Let’s face it, if you are still running a 2003 unit there’s a good chance that it has a bespoke application on it that is going to be difficult to migrate. If that unit works in isolation and doesn’t have any customer data on it doing nothing could be a valid, albeit risky, option. What happens, though, if the physical parts of the server begin to fail?
DO NOTHING
This is the most obvious answer. However, instead of moving from a hardware server to another hardware server why not run the server as a virtual machine? This could extend the life of the application and could improve the resilience of the application. For more information about virtualisation check out our virtualisation guide.
UPGRADE TOSERVER 2012
If you want to get rid of the hassle of managing your servers this could be an ideal opportunity to consider hosting your IT infrastructure in the cloud. As Ambrosetti found, page three, it could enable you to focus your resource on running your business.
MIGRATE TO THE CLOUD
For help and information about your options ring our specialists on 01858 438 500.
We recently launched our Veeam Cloud Connect service and we’re giving you the opportunity to take a free trial. You can test drive the service for three months to see if it improves your backup regime.
Veeam Cloud Connect tackles an ever present
problem for IT managers; off-site backup storage.
Ideally we’d all use the
‘3-2-1 backup rule’. In
the real world limited
bandwidth and growing
data volumes prohibits
many organisations from
achieving that goal.
Cloud backupNot for much longer though. You can now
strengthen your off-site backup regime with
Abtec and Veeam Cloud Connect. We can store
your primary or secondary Veeam backups
in our secure cloud. Our Veeam optimised
network connections can help speed up your
backup and recovery process. And our ‘pay per
GB’ pricing ensures that you only pay for the
backup infrastructure that you’ve used.
How it worksYou can get your backups offsite into our cloud
with no additional Veeam licensing, it’s part
of Veeam Availibility Suite v8. Access and
recover data directly from your backup console;
track cloud repository consumption and receive
reminders for hosted storage renewals. Rest
easy by encrypting all data at source (before
it leaves your network perimeter), or use our
secure Veeam optimised network to speed up
the delivery and recovery process.
Contact our specialists for a free trial on 01858
438 500, or visit www.abtecnet.com.
Windows Server 2003 End of Support
Smarter Business Backup with Veeam
3-2-1 Backup
backups3mediatypes2
off-site1
FREE TRIAL
5
New customer service head
📣
Barents House, Compass Point, Market Harborough, Leicestershire LE16 9HW
www.abtecnet.com01858 438 500 enquiry@abtecnet.com
Jason Bates joins us as our new head of customer service and technical operations. Jason has over 25 years engineering and IT management experience, gleaned from the private sector.
Name Jason BatesTitle Head of Customer Service and
Technical OperationsFavourite film Silence of the LambsFavourite album
Final Cut (Pink Floyd)
Favourite book Anything by Dan BrownFavourite TV It’s got to be Top Gear, with or
without Clarkson!What challenges do IT managers face today?
Users demand high availability of applications, and having the right infrastructure skills in your team to support that is difficult. Our cloud can provide that resilient and secure platform. Letting your team focus on applications that add value to your business.
What do you bring to the role?
I’ve been an IT manager and engineer for 25 years. I understand clients’ challenges, and know the difference that personal service from your IT partner makes. I, along with my team, aim to bring that personal service to all of our clients.
We’ll be joined shortly by three
students from local universities.
Chris Topham, Abtec’s Head of
Marketing, has been working with
Loughborough and Sheffield Hallam
University to fill student placement
roles at Abtec.
Chris explains “I’ve restarted our
12 month placement and summer
internship schemes”.
The schemes will benefit IT and
computer science students by giving
them hands on experience with our IT
projects and support.
Network Management and Design
student, Luke Smith, joins us as an
intern over the summer. He’s already
got stuck into taking support calls and
helped with project installations.
“Later in the summer” Chris continues,
“two more students will join us for a
year from Loughborough University”.
The two IT students will be supporting
Abtec’s technical and projects teams.
IT students join the team
Cisco award for TomTom Shelton, one of Abtec’s
networking specialists, has passed his
Cisco Certified Network Professional
(CCNP) exam.
Tom joins others in the network
team who now have the accredited
expertise to support LAN, WAN and
ISP infrastructure.
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