The event was attended by a host of industry professionals and IT specialists eager to explore more about software defined data centres and Timico’s hosting and managed network capabilities. Presentations and an ‘unpanel’ Q&A session also discussed the increasing need for businesses to move with technological advances in order to become more agile and responsive to change.
Although businesses have been using virtualisation for as long as ten years, the event aimed to examine the importance of keeping up with rapidly changing industry trends – especially with regard to IT provisioning and ways in which businesses can embrace new ways of managing multiple servers and IT networks. The importance of a hosted infrastructure at the heart of a managed network and the cloud’s lack of effectiveness, if supported by inadequate connectivity, were also stressed to the audience.
Virtualisation industry leaders VMware supported the launch event with a well-received keynote speech from Chief Technologist EMEA, Joe Baguley. In a lively speech he said: “Never has there been more pressure on technology to drive business success. Organisations have to deliver, be it to customers or shareholders, and never before have the results of failing to do so been so acute in a biting global economy.
“And as much as the business landscape shifts and organisations must transform, IT businesses must too. What containerisation did for international trade, automation did for manufacturing production and globalisation did for business reach, cloud is now doing for the way IT is delivered and consumed and the agility this brings business. But cloud is only one approach and the unrelenting consumerisation of technology only one driver.”
Timico’s new Virtual Data Centre service enables servers to be created in minutes, rather than days and weeks – adding a new agility to IT organisations. It is powered by enterprise strength technology – VMware vCloud Director 5.1, Cisco UCS blades, Cisco Nexus switches, EMC VNX SAN, hosted in its Tier 3+ Nottinghamshire data centre which opened in 2012. Crucially for performance, the platform is also embedded in Timico’s 10Gbps national fibre network. The new service adds to Timico’s portfolio of hosting services, which include Enterprise Private Cloud, colocation and dedicated server solutions.
Trefor Davies, Timico’s Chief Technology Officer, added: “We believe the launch event served to bust a few myths about hosted infrastructure – namely the perception that it’s less reliable and secure – or will perform poorly. The evening’s presentations and discussions completely debunked these myths and underlined the importance of first rate connectivity and infrastructure.
“We hope we have educated a few on the best ways to support their business’ IT systems, which is all we can ask for. The world of IT is changing at a rapid rate and if businesses want to compete, they need to join us at the head of the pack. Agility, connectivity and a clear comprehension of what the cloud can do for business are fast becoming the most important factors when servicing the markets of one in today’s world.”