Posted by Steve Schwartz on Tue, Jun 22, 2010
Here are a few recent updates on implement.com and our work as a partner with Microsoft.
implement.com attends 2010 EMEA Hosting Club
We recently attended a gathering of executives from the top hosting companies in Europe called the EMEA Hosting Club. It was held in Vienna and focused on sharing best practices amongst the various companies in attendance in a roundtable format. We also took the opportunity to meet with some of our key European clients and work out plans for deploying Exchange 2010 SP1.
implement.com profiled in 2010 EMEA Partner Guide
We have been profiled in a Microsoft publication that highlights sgnificant partners in Microsoft's EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). This is a great opportunity for us to relay our value proposition to a wide audience. Here is a link to the guide:
Microsoft Communications Sector Partner Guide EMEA 2010
implement.com guest blogs on Microsoft Communications Sector Hosting Insights Blog
We were invited to provide a guest blog on the Microsoft Communications Sector Hosting Insights Blog about the work we are doing with Microsoft on how to migrate to their forthcoming Exchange 2010 SP1 release. This is the first version of Exchange that will be officially supported by the product group for multi-tenant hosting. You can read the details on the blog, but I will say that this was a great opportunity to showcase our thought leader ship in the Hosted Exchange ecosystem and our role over the last 11 years as a partner of Microsoft and its customers for deploying the Microsoft hosting platform.
Guest Blog by implement.com: Native Multi-Tenancy Provisioning in Hosted Exchange 2010 SP1
Posted by Steve Schwartz on Tue, Mar 30, 2010
I have seen numerous times businesses try to compare hosted services to on premise based on a price or cost standpoint. In my viewpoint, the comparison must be done not on a dollar amount in a spreadsheet, but on the value of the service to the business. Whether it is on premise or hosted or in a cloud is more a business model discussion, though with lots of considerations such as security, service levels, and recoverability.
But how do you start to get a handle on the value of the service? I have attempted here to at least outline some of the items you might consider:
- Focus IT Staff on Mission Critical Line of Business Apps
- I have heard repeatedly from customers that their IT staff is overworked and understaffed and they wish they could focus on more mission critical line of business apps instead of things like managing Exchange.
- By outsourcing commodity technology like messaging and collaboration, unified communications, and business applications like CRM, you free up your IT staff, and further, future proof yourself from having to maintain current technology and keep your staff up to speed
- Get access to technology without roadblocks
- It is increasingly common to have a discussion with potential customers about them wanting to deploy a new technology like Unified Communications utilizing Microsoft Office Communications Server, but their IT staff is blocked by too many other projects and don't have the requisite expertise to deploy it quickly and start getting value. In some cases, this is from folks that have already bought the software and cannot leverage the investment.
- Physical Security
- This one is easy, how many small businesses have their Exchange or SharePoint server sitting under a desk, or in a non secure storage closet? Physically securing your server and storage is every bit as important as the standard security from user ids and passwords.
- Datacenter Features
- "The Cage"
- Having a highly efficient and secure "cage" in a data center is the first step in physical security and reliability
- Highly Available and Redundant Power and Network
- UPS and diesel generator backup power with multiple redundant communication links - how many small businesses have that?
- Security
- Multiple levels of physical access security and video surveillance, common in a Data Center, not so much in a typical office building
- Yeah, but I can get all of that by doing co-location myself can't I?...for 100 people?
- Sure you could, and for around $2-3,000 per month you get your cage, power, and broadband, but....
- You would underutilize the cage by an incredible margin - how many servers would you put in the cage? With blade technology you can place many servers in one cage but a typical small business probably only has a dozen servers at most
- For all of that expense for your servers, you are still woefully under utilizing them - to have minimally redundant Exchange platform, even with virtualization, you will need a few physical servers - but probably no Storage Are Network and related benefits - and for how many users? Maybe a 100 or 200? You will have a platform that could easily run 2000 users or more - hey, that's not green!
- End User and Customer Experience
- Easier, Web Based Administration and it can be delegated (IT staff establishes the rules, policies, and plans - then it's automated)
- More effective tools with tasks completed in a more timely manner
- Anywhere access without having to become an expert on firewalls and security
- In this article the Whir does a nice job of analyzing the benefits for SMB's utilizing hosted services:
Finally, this is all summed up by saying it is difficult to quantify costs of on premise vs. hosted, and there are numerous tangents of value that have to be evaluated and how the outcomes of one choice impact the bottom line for the business.
Posted by Steve Schwartz on Thu, Mar 18, 2010
A short note to telecommunications companies about "Cloud" computing services, but first some pertinent questions:
How do you define what services are delivered when you offer "Cloud" computing? Is it limited to hosted servers/OS/Database/Web Services billed by complex metering? Hosted Desktops? Virtual Servers? Cloud is a tough term to use and even define, and I eagerly await its being phased out.
This blog comes from my long and arduous experiences helping telcos deliver cheap and cheerful free PoP3 email... I have been in the ASP/Hosting/SaaS/Cloud business since 1999, and in the process worked with many telcos globally. During that time I have seen only one application service ever garner some success outside of the traditional offerings of broadband and voice services. In this context I gauge "success" as a service that actually generates revenue because customers want to buy it from the telco (i.e. the right target market), in the way the telco sells it (very cheap, or free bundled with broadband), and the way they want to buy it (online and anonymous).
Guess which application? PoP3 email! Mostly delivered to very small businesses or consumers. Transitioning to selling more advanced email and calendaring, let alone "Cloud", to real live SMB's with high expectations for support and customer service is a massive transition. This is not a technology problem.
The latest logical extension to email is Unified Communications and to me, the successful telco that wants to drive towards success in the "Cloud" will focus very narrowly on hosted Unified Communications, especially Hosted OCS (Microsoft Office Communications Server), for the smaller end of the SMB market. The accompanying diagram shows how Microsoft views the future of Unified Communications.
Posted by Jarmo Paukkunen on Mon, Feb 15, 2010
At implement.com, we realize that your clients are under pressure to innovate in response to an ever-changing IT landscape. That's why we're excited to announce our acceptance into the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Microsoft Exchange 2010.
The TAP was created to evaluate the partner and multi-tenant hosting capabilities of Microsoft's new product version so the company can (1) get early product feedback and (2) ensure that its features are fully capable of managing real-world scenarios.
So, why is this important to implement.com clients? It's great news, for several reasons.
- Since deploying Exchange 2010 RTM is not supported in a hosting scenario, we want to be ready to deploy Exchange 2010 in a fully supported scenario-so our clients can be comfortable with our hosting solutions.
- Due to our unwavering customer commitment and our dedication to solidifying an already-productive relationship with Microsoft, we were one of only a few companies chosen for the TAP program.
- Because of our affiliation with Microsoft and our opportunity to be among the first providing Hosted Exchange 2010 in a supported environment, implement.com remains at the forefront of the hosting world. That's good news for us-and great news for our clients.
The TAP program is widely recognized within the IT sector, which is just another reason why the implement.com team is excited about working closely with Microsoft.
Not only will we get a hands-on preview of Hosted Exchange 2010's revolutionary features-but we'll also be able to assist our clients in benefitting from its strategic business implications.