The Blackberry server unexpectedly went down at around 11am yesterday all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The problem originates from a RIM data centre in Slough. Blackberry users were unable to access the web, the “real time” BBM instant messages service or their private emails. Soon after people began to vent their anger using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

One of the top trending topics was about RIM’s free real-time instant messaging service BBM going down. This is one of the major selling points for this particular smartphone and there’s no doubt this down time will be detrimental to there reputation. The smartphone market is becoming more and more populated by the likes of Google Android and Apple iPhone. Whilst RIM will be trying to rectify there mistakes this morning, Google will be celebrating as there Samsung Galaxy SII beat Apple’s iPhone 4 at the T3 gadget awards winning Phone of the Year. This is the first time in three years it hasn’t been awarded to Apple or HTC. Samsung Galaxy SII runs in sync with all your Google Apps and is the perfect answer for business people wanting to work on the go.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is a gorgeous looking phone with slick operation, a great social hub and the best camera on any smartphone to date. It has great integration with Samsung’s TVs and a screen that matches the iPhone 4.

Well in fact it’s the opposite. With my first day at  Cloud Technology Solutions I was introduced to  the business and our aims as one of the leading experts in migration to the cloud. Filled with buzz and excitement about our future ahead I then faced what I thought would be the daunting task of my first experience with Google Apps. Prior to this year you could say I was a ‘legacy application user’ and thought the transition to a solely web based provider could be somewhat difficult. I was allocated as the office guinea pig to try out the newly Google referred training partner Boost Elearning which CTS sell and support. This Google Apps training includes courses on Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites.

Initial impressions-the training programme seems pretty slick and easy to follow. With four sections, each section provides you with easy to follow demo videos and a tick list you can follow which automatically marks which part of the sections you have completed. Each sections is summarised with a conclusion page. The software provides for all different styles of learners if you wanted to complete the training in one foul swoop you could be done and dusted in just over an hour and a half. However personally I think slow and steady wins the race. I went through each section with my Gmail account by my side with each summary page I simply paused the programme and carried out the ‘tasks’ within my own Gmail account. Within my first afternoon I had completed the Boost Elearning programme and I’m pretty confident I’ve nailed it. Until Google releases something else into the Labs that is. However the reassuring thing about Boost Elearning is that they promise to evolve their training programme as Google continues to evolve with a fifteen day maximum wait on an update to their system.

So in conclusion ‘my transition’ has been anything but difficult and I can’t help but think that Kerry Katona could have mastered this whilst skating on the ice. My first day has been painless I’m now going to lose my head in the cloud or rather  Google+…

This year marks the Second Annual Enterprise Cloud Computing and Virtualization Conference which has become the UK’s leading cloud based event surrounding the deployment of Enterprise-Wide Cloud and Virtualisation Infrastructures across Enterprise-Level companies in the UK. Held last week at the prestigious Britannia Hotel in London the event provided the perfect opportunity for CTS (a Gold sponsor at the event) to give an insight in an industry environment into what we do and who we are on a face to face basis. The CC&V conference also provided CTS with a plethora of networking and research opportunities with regards to the future of cloud technology and virtualisation through a seminar based programme. Speakers included delegates from IBM UK, Rentokil, Morgan Stanley, Intel and Specsavers covering a variety of topics such as an end to end view on Cloud technology, collaboration and security along with a variety of insightful case studies from the relevant sectors.

Speaking about the event our VP of technology Paul Lees commented;

The conference was directed at a wide variety of partners and attendees all under one roof and gave us a great opportunity to tell our story as well as research and compare the latest products and services from other world-class companies. We were able to make some great contacts and build on those already established on a mass networking scale as well as re-enforce our core customer values in the public arena.

It seems the balance of power in technology is shifting from one side of the Atlantic to the other as Cloud Technology Solutions, one of a select group of managed Google Enterprise Business partners in the UK is switching around 2000 U.S email users per week to Google with its migration toolset.

Cloud Google Migrator is written and supported in-house at CTS and was the first commercial tool to migrate GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange systems to Google Apps, specifically enabling an entire email system to migrate to Google Mail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar whilst ensuring a high level of configurability is provided.

With Google Migrator, all calendar, contacts and email information are moved over seamlessly with errors being reported and rectified in near real time. Performing the migration server side also means that there is no need for users to engage in any desktop migration tasks themselves – an approach that significantly reduces user burden and the possibility for error. In fact the only user involvement is mailbox setup on mobile devices – a relatively straight-forward task that users would undertake post go-live. The toolset is now being used by an ever increasing array of partners state-side to migrate U.S users to Google Apps.

“We’re currently moving around 2000 email users per week to the Google Apps platform which will ensure growth and enable CTS to expand its business in the American market place,” said Steve Kaye, managing director, Cloud Technology Solutions.

“Working with partners that have a strong support ethos for the end user is important when growing our business, and our U.S based partners provide just that – they’re a perfect fit for CTS.”

Massachusetts based Horizon Info Services is one of many using the migration product in the U.S.

Allen Falcon, CEO, Horizon Info Services comments; “Demand for cloud based computing in the American market is growing quickly and is being driven by the requirements for greater collaboration, reduced cost of server and data centre maintenance and the ‘green agenda’. Our partnership with CTS will help Horizon Info Services to fulfil the demand for Google Apps in the market place.”

Cloud Technolog Solutions’ reach across the U.S is via Google Resellers who need to migrate customers email systems over to the cloud. U.S partners using Google Migrator include; Cloud Sherpas, Dito, SheepDog, and White Stratus.

Cloud Technology Solutions have moved. We have just recently moved into new offices in the vibrant heart of Manchester. Our new address finds us at the Triangle, a busy commercial and leisure complex in the center of the city. Manchester city center is served well by public and private transport links and now visiting us is even easier. When business is concluded, we are surrounded by a range of bars and restaurants (even a cinema) to relax and enjoy your visit to Manchester. Along with the location move, we also have new telephone numbers that we can be contacted on. Our email addresses of course stay the same. You can find all of our new details below and also on our contact page. We look forward to seeing you there!

Location Map

Address

Cloud Technology Solutions Ltd
217 The Triangle
Exchange Square
Manchester
M4 3TR
United Kingdom

General Enquiries

email: contact@cloudsolutions.co.uk
phone: +44 (0) 161 838 5664-5666
fax: +44 (0)844 736 1978

Product Support

email: support@cloudsolutions.co.uk

Gartner announced its top 10 strategic technologies for the coming year. The Connecticut-based IT research and advice company built its list by seeking technologies that could significantly impact enterprise within three years. This meant trends with “a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt,” according to a company press release. What made the top 10?

Cloud computing

Mobile Applications and Media Tablets

Social Communications and Collaboration (social networking, social collaboration, social publishing, and social feedback)

Video

Next generation analytics

Social analytics

Context-aware computing

Storage class memory

Ubiquitous computing

Fabric-based infrastructure and computers

See the full report at http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1454221

“Where is my data stored ?” is a question we are often asked when discussing migrations to the cloud. Closely followed by “my IT security guys tell me I must legally store all company data within this country”.

So let us try to answer these questions and cut through some of the misunderstanding around data location and the cloud.

Where ?

First, if you’re using Google Apps, your data will be stored in Google’s network of data centers. Google maintains a number of geographically distributed data centers, the locations of which are kept a closely guarded secret for security purposes. Your data is then encrypted and distributed in individual sequences to a multitude of servers and data storage media. This system guarantees that the individual data segments may not be stored contiguously, thereby preventing external parties or groups from assembling the data segments or decoding them. The system distributes file names randomly and this means that it is not possible to generate a file list of every client and that the individual data segments are not decipherable and can’t be reconstituted. The data is replicated over several data processing centres, whereby redundancy and constant availability are safeguarded. In order to minimise further security risks, each Google server is specially configured according to its individual function and exclusively equipped with the software components necessary for that purpose. The homogenous server architecture enables rapid updating and configuration changes over the entire network when the need arises.

Google’s computing clusters are designed with resiliency and redundancy in mind, eliminating any single point of failure and minimizing the impact of common equipment failures and environmental risks. Access to data centers is very limited to only authorized select Google employees personnel.

A common misunderstanding is that you legally have to store your data within your country or the EU. This is not true if you have hosting your data with an organsation that has signed up to the Safe Harbor Program.

The Safe Harbor Program is a specific data privacy agreement between the European Union and the USA, enabling European businesses to transfer personal data legally in the USA.

The 95/46/EC Data privacy Directive strictly prohibits any transfer of personal data beyond the member states of the European Economic Area. Thus the country in which the data is transferred offers an appropriate data privacy level and therefore adequate personal data privacy. Since the USA has not originally established comprehensive legal regulations corresponding to the EU member states’ data privacy standards, the European Commission collaborated with the US Department of Trade to compile the framework for the Safe Harbor Program. The transfer of personal data to a US company is permitted, and deemed as adequately protected, within the framework of this structure. The prerequisite is that the US company is a signatory of the US/EU Safe Harbor Agreement. In 2000 the EU recognised that an adequate level of personal data privacy was provided by the Safe Harbor Program signatory companies. Google is a signatory of the Safe Harbor Program and is listed by the US Department of Trade. This ensures that Google is compelled to fully recognise the Safe Harbor principles, and to observe them.

Cloud Technology Solutions, the North West-based Google Authorised Business Partner – one of only five ‘managed’ partners in the country has appointed Paul Lees as VP of Technology.

Paul is one of the UK’s leading specialists in the area of Cloud Security and Identity and Access management. He joins Cloud Technology Solutions from Salford Software where he held the position of technical director for the last decade and was a key member of a small management team, helping define the company strategy and direction.

“It’s an exciting time as demand for cloud based computing is growing quickly and is being driven by the requirements for greater collaboration, reduced cost of server and data centre maintenance and a ‘green agenda’,” said Paul Lees.

“I’m looking forward to helping define the technology strategy for Cloud Technology Solutions and driving the delivery of migrations to Google for those companies wishing to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing.”

In his new role Paul will help Cloud Technology Solutions strengthen its position as the UK’s fastest growing Google partner – migrating over 2,000 users per week to the Google Apps platform.

“I’m delighted to be able to welcome someone of Paul’s stature to the company. He joins us at a very exciting time and he will be instrumental in driving further success around cloud adoption for UK organisations and beyond. Paul and I share a common belief that there is room for a more pragmatic approach from IT suppliers such as Cloud Technology Solutions” said Steve Kaye, CEO, Cloud Technology Solutions.

The revolution of Google Apps for Enterprise offers a compelling and easy way for businesses to create, collaborate and provide access to documents, both internally and externally with sub-contractors, suppliers, customers and other non-employees. However with this ease comes the real danger that employees may leave documents exposed and accessible to unintended parties.

“It is so easy to share information on Google Docs, however it is difficult for IT to manage and secure it, especially when sharing outside of the organisation.” saids Paul Lees, Vice President of Cloud Technology Solutions.

This lack of visibility into the document creation and publishing process and lack of governance control puts data security and access controls into the hands of the users themselves; a scenario that hinders the value of their implementation. As a result, IT teams are struggling to:

To address this problem Cloud Technology Solutions are delighted to be the first UK based partner of Aprigo.

The award-winning Aprigo NINJA is the simplest way for business-savvy IT managers to quickly reduce storage costs and control access to sensitive data. Aprigo NINJA for Google Docs is an essential part of any organisation that has moved to Google Apps that values its information and data. Aprigo NINJA for Google Docs allows organisation to gain visibility and control over this information

Simple Reporting and Statistics Tracking

Powerful, intuitive reports and statistics – including document classification and usage patterns – enable technology professionals to accurately track adoption rates and understand how users are leveraging the Google Docs platform. Companies can also efficiently audit documents, as well as their permissions, to ensure compliance with their information-sharing policies.

Advanced Security

Aprigo NINJA for Google Docs includes robust security features. Because it is a Google Marketplace solution, the process of granting privileges to access and use Aprigo NINJA is fully protected. IT Administrators can also immediately remove or disable the application at any time.
Aprigo NINJA is accessed over encrypted transport (https) so documents are retrieved using the secure published Google Docs APIs as well as encrypted transport. These overlapping security measures almost completely eliminate the threat of security breaches.

Cloud Technology Solutions [CTS] has strengthened it’s team of Cloud and Google experts with the appointment of Stuart Cummings, an information security specialist. Before joining CTS Stuart was the Chief Information Security Officer at SABMiller. Stuart has many years experience working within the information security business both at SABMiller and Citigroup, where Stuart was responsible for security management and compliance within the group.

Stuart strengthens an already impressive array of technology experts within CTS. CTS is a lead Google partner, and has help many organisations from large multinational to small businesses take advantage of what cloud computing, and more specifically Google, has to offer.

“I’m delighted to be working with Cloud Technology Solutions – Cloud Computing it’s the natural progression for all IT, and security is an extremely important part of that proposition”, said Stuart Cummings.

“CTS takes security very seriously, our focus on making cloud solutions that are accessible while remaining extremely secure is at the heart of what we do, said Steve Kaye CEO, Cloud Technology Solutions. “Cloud-computing is not a panacea, we believes that the need to adhere to information security management best practices still remains.”

“CTS continues to attract high caliber executives strengthening our team and importantly our expertise. I’m pleased to welcome Stuart to the business.”