Industry Class-leading HP Converged Infrastructure hardware and automation software means services can be automatically provisioned within the hour.

Following the 80/20 rule, standardisation of common IT Service requests enables IT to concentrate on bespoke business critical systems and developing new standards. Leasing / chargeback / showback are built into the software.
 
HP CloudSystem is more flexible than Amazon Web Services and more cost effective over time. Organisations can leverage Cloud Maps jointly created by HP, Microsoft, Oracle and other ISVs to quickly define services guaranteed to meet standard level objectives.
 

The company has already partnered with independent software vendor IIZUKA to provide the UK Pensions Ombudsman with a secure Cloud-based Case Management system via its OptimiseCloud™ service. The deal, which saw the service begin to play a central role in the Ombudsman’s operations in early 2013, combines the ISV’s Case Management expertise with the security of SCC’s Pan-Government accredited Cloud platform, and was rolled out across the government-appointed regulator’s operation in January.

IIZUKA Managing Director Greg Hayes commented: “Our partnership with SCC offers a range of benefits. The confidence and credibility provided by its Pan-Government accreditation has been of significant value, enabling us to provide the public sector with the high levels of security it demands without incurring the considerable outlay required to secure such ratings in our own right. While the company’s infrastructure expertise has allowed us to focus on our speciality, its track record in the public sector and extensive client base has also opened up a new route to market for our service that we believe offers huge potential for the future.”

In the public sector, a landmark 2012 agreement with Mersey Care NHS Trust to deliver the UK’s first healthcare cloud saw SCC complete a deal designed to deliver secure services at significant savings as well as freeing up front line staff to concentrate on patient care. The deal will see the public sector organisation’s patient records, operational data and ICT infrastructure migrate to SCC’s OptimiseCloud™ platform and is expected to save the Trust in excess of 15% on its IT costs.

Mark Bostock, director, Informatics Merseyside, said: “There are huge advantages to this scheme not only in terms of potential cost savings although the business case alone here is very compelling as this means there is no need to have multiple data centres and on-site servers. Additionally, customers can scale up or down very quickly according to their needs at any one time and this means organisations can plan ahead with much greater certainty in terms of capital outlay.

“If customers only want to do something on a short term basis they can as they only pay for what they use. This is a platform which provides massive flexibility and will undoubtedly see a much more efficient system.”

Rowland Johnson, CEO of Nettitude commented: “Without doubt, the issue of Cloud security is one of the biggest issues facing the industry today. Delegates attending InfoSec this year should come to speak to us on the SCC stand, where our consultants will be available to talk to companies about identifying and managing risk surrounding their data assets, stripping away much of the mystery around the subject and replacing it with hard facts.”

Visit SCC and Nettitude at stand N63 at InfoSec 2013 from 23-25 April. http://www.infosec.co.uk/en/Exhibitors/175664/SCC
 

Tracy has been with SCC – Europe’s largest technology solutions provider – for 24 years and has been Director responsible for overseeing public sector activity for the past 15 years.
 

Additionally, Tracy is Vice Chair of the Public Sector Council (PSC) for Intellect, the trade body representing the IT sector with whom Government consults, leading on Cloud and procurement.

Tracy joins the GBSLEP Board to provide a particular expertise in technology as a number of important IT focused initiatives come on-stream.

Andy Street, Chair of the GBSLEP, said: “Tracy brings a wealth of experience working with a wide range of public sector organisations which will be invaluable.

“Themes such as digital infrastructure, Smart Cities, connectivity and innovation mean that, in many ways, technology is the glue that holds together our strategy and will become even more important as we go forward.

“Tracy’s work with local authorities, Whitehall and Government on strategic IT issues makes her an excellent addition to the Board and we very much look forward to working with her as we move into a very exciting stage in the GBSLEP’s progression.”

Tracy has chaired the IT Sub Group for the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP and has spearheaded its focus on website development and the Broadband UK bid.

Tracy said: “I have an active interest in regional issues and challenges and I am confident my expertise and experience will stand me in good stead for working with the GBSLEP.

“I know from first hand experience the extent to which technology has become prominent on the Government’s agenda as a force for economic development and also in terms of financial savings.

“This will be an important theme going forward through initiatives such as Smart Cities and I am keen to play my part in supporting this work.”

For further information, please visit www.gbslep.com
 

Responding to the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8, Europe’s largest independent technology solutions provider believes that an increasingly crowded marketplace is creating demand for services dedicated to helping determine a direction of travel for clients confused by the variety of available options. The company notes that the proliferating range of operating systems, device types and form factors on offer have led to an increasing number of customers seeking impartial advice to help identify the most systems most appropriate to their individual user bases and service deliverables.

“The last five years have seen a range of developments which, while welcome, have created something of a fog for organisations looking to map out coherent ICT strategies. While for decades the only real question facing them was when to implement the latest version of Windows, the advent of new options like Android and iOS has made that decision far more complex,” said SCC’s Vendor Alliances Director Andy Wright.

“With touch screen PCs, tablets and smart phones fast becoming a standard fixture of the modern working environment, there is no longer a singular correct answer to the conundrum off which operating systems to implement, and our experience shows that customers increasingly need help and guidance to address the many questions and criteria that go into making such a decision.”

The announcement follows widespread industry debate on the future of ICT infrastructure sparked by the release of the Windows 8 OS. Aimed largely at the market for touch-enabled devices, the software creates a fresh option for enterprises looking to introduce tablets and phones that more readily comply with corporate security policies and existing applications.

SCC's Solutions Architect Manager, Desktop & Collaboration, Piers Covill added: “Choice is a great thing, driving innovation and creating new opportunities, and the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows RT can only accelerate that change. These options mean that organisations need to be ready for a mixture of OS types, and organisations need proven, independent advice to help determine the solutions that are right for them. With 35 years of experience working in the client device market and rolling out successive operating systems, SCC is in an ideal place to offer clear, independent advice to help companies reduce the decision making process, choose the best options for their staff and ultimately reduce their speed to market.”

SCC, Europe’s largest independent technology solutions provider has launched the hosted service in response to growing demand from private and public sector clients across the UK. These businesses have a pressing need for tools capable of managing organisation-wide strategies to support, police and protect the sensitive data that matters to an organisation and is increasingly accessed through mobile devices. The cloud-based service makes Symantec’s Mobile Management technology available to SCC’s UK customer base and is hosted and run from SCC’s UK data centre. Symantec’s Mobile Management suite increases IT efficiency with over the air deployment of applications and updates, and improves end user productivity by managing mobile device health.

“The rapid advances we’ve seen in consumer devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has seen organisations come under increasing pressure from the boardroom to the shop floor to integrate a new generation of exciting mobile technologies into everyday business life. In terms of productivity and collaboration there are enormous benefits to be had from doing so, but the challenge of providing users access to commercial applications wherever and whenever they want them, on any device of their choice and without creating security or compliance issues, has deterred many enterprises in the past,” said Mike Swain, SCC UK Services Managing Director.

“We’re delighted to have worked closely with Symantec to develop a solution to the issues posed by the tablet and smartphone revolution. By combining their industry-leading expertise with our award-winning data centre we plan to establish a new gold standard in Mobile Device Management (MDM), enabling organisations to securely and effectively manage every stage of the transition to a more complex computing environment.”

The new hosted service offers a range of business benefits including the expedition of time to market through improved productivity, managed risk and regulation via corporate wide policies. Part of a comprehensive service range, designed to help clients through every stage of the process from planning and procurement to implementation and support, SCC’s MDM package provides IT departments with the ability to place both corporate and employee owned devices under centralised management, protecting valuable corporate data and enabling more effective handling of lost or stolen hardware.

Users benefit from an improved breadth of choice, allowing the use of different types of devices and multiple OS platforms that can be managed and updated remotely, greatly improving workforce mobility.

Matt Ellard, vice president of Northern Europe, Symantec, commented: “For enterprises today, the explosion of mobile technologies has created a very different world. It is one where the potential to create a more dynamic, flexible and highly responsive workforce is virtually limitless, but is also an environment that creates an additional level of risk, as devices with access to sensitive corporate systems and data can easily be damaged, stolen or lost. Robust management of mobile devices is key in enabling businesses to protect sensitive and valuable data while still reaping the rewards of this new mobile era.”

• Tuesday, November 6th 2012 between 9am and 5.30pm at The Brewery at 52 Chiswell Street, London, EC1Y 4SD
   
• Tuesday, November 13th 2012 from 9am to 5pm at The Marriott Renaissance Hotel on Blackfriars Street, Manchester, M3 2EQ

The events are designed to underline Oracle’s commitment to promoting the benefits of IT to make systems work faster and more smoothly for businesses however large or small as well as highlighting its commitment to simplifying cloud, mobiles, social networks and big data.

There will be workshops and keynote speakers featuring Oracle experts as well as a chance to listen to people who have benefitted from making the most of new technologies in their business environment and live demonstrations.

If you want to find out more about the events or register your details to attend Oracle Day 2012, please click on the links below:

• London, November 6th 2012
• Manchester, November 13th 2012

Speaking to a prestigious audience of leading technologists at the London event today about “Architecting Choice” SCC Corporate CTO Ian Sherratt said that with use of personal devices to complete work functions and access corporate information escalating, Chief Information Officers around the country are being presented with a raft of new challenges. Demand to bring tablet PCs, iPads and smart phones into the workplace has grown rapidly over the last two years, and is throwing up a range of issues around data security, hardware management and the changing role of the internal IT department.

“For the last few years people from around the industry have been involved in multiple discussions about the Consumerisation of IT, but now the time for talking is over. The Bring-Your-own-Device (BYOD) movement has accelerated with such rapidity that it has already become commonplace, and is fast creating a very real range of issues for enterprises across the country,” said Sherratt.

“Users are increasingly demanding to use mobile apps and a range of hardware within the corporate context while simultaneously insisting upon using their own devices for workplace functions too. They are defining their own productivity needs. In this scenario the traditional CIO role is under pressure and fast becoming at risk, leaving those in such positions with a clear need to redefine the role they play in company operations, and the need for them to switch to a business benefit and service focus. When the organisation can choose you as a service provider, or not, it is vital that your services match their expectations and the best of what the web and cloud can offer them” Sherratt commented.

SCC believes that the need to change towards a more data and user centric approach is creating major challenges for corporate CIOs as demand from users places increasing pressure on networks, data and security while simultaneously creating rising demand for new approaches to managing proliferating company hardware inventories. ICT departments traditionally concerned with desktop management and IT infrastructure are discovering that with the world changing around them, there is a mounting imperative to switch their focus onto data and the quality of it, which is fast becoming the preeminent corporate asset.

Sherratt added: “Do they fully understand the corporate data landscape? Do their users trust it? Is there a plan for its maintenance, curation and exploitation and what can that do for them if they understand the true value of their data? What is the business cost of poor quality data? What do you not know about your customers that could have changed your ability to delight or retain them? These are the questions that today’s CIO’s should be asking, because not understanding data and how to apply it is costing companies real money right now.”

According to SCC, in today’s shifting technology landscape the pressure is on for CIO’s to transform their role from one predicated upon IT delivery to a more business-specific focus on service delivery. The emerging emphasis is no longer about understanding the technical detail, but is instead focused upon how the technology can be deployed to benefit upon you as a company. This means a shift in thinking from “I run everything” towards “what is the IT that defines me as a CIO in this business?”

In a shift the company identifies as one of the biggest cultural changes to have faced ICT staff in over 20 years, the core function of many in-house support departments is moving from technologies focus to capabilities. The days of large demographic groups, such as “information worker” is over, it is the power of one, the individual, we must now contend with. It is a move traditionally seen as a fast route to outsourcing all IT functions, but many commentators now believe that this process could be the salvation of many CIOs as they take on a new and significant role more squarely focused upon service delivery - offering the chance to understand what’s truly important within their organisation and adopt a more business-critical focus. Sherratt calls this Architecting choice, and added, “We must build something that can flex and grow with business demand and user need, not repeat the monolithic approaches of the past.”

With many organisations using apps for a raft of corporate functions including expenses claims, mileage recording, CRM and sales, SCC has worked with enterprise scale clients to help them come to terms with the evolving role of commercial IT. The company works with in-house teams to create heat maps of their business and its functions, identifying areas where use is most critical. This process provides an understanding of where deploying such tools can deliver greatest business impact, joining together the blueprint for a more flexible and modern IT landscape, that embraces virtualisation, cloud, web, apps, and allows users to choose their productivity tools, making IT a supplier and aggregator of services, not a purveyor of hardware.

Sherratt commented: “The pace at which BYOD and the new wave of mobility has taken off is breathtaking. The industry is accustomed to operating a refresh cycle of 3-5 years or more around traditional desktops and laptops, but that process is fast evaporating and we must come to terms with the fact that users like what they like, and 5 years is a long time to be staring at the same window on the world, especially now. You could try to stop the process, but if you prevent people using the device of their choice, all the evidence shows that they will simply find ways to circumvent the rules - leaving organisations in a position where they will struggle to preserve data integrity and security because too many of their workforce are operating outside of the corporate governance system. Take heed, this is a do it, or have it done to you scenario”

The technology solutions brand of SCH - Europe’s largest independent IT Group - became the first to capitalise on strong initial interest in cloud computing from a range of public sector organisations when it was revealed last month that nine of the firm’s services had been awarded full IL2 and IL3 accreditation. With the platform’s first customers already signed up and set to go live before the end of the year, the company has revealed that VMware technology is a key enabler in its delivery of Secure Multi-Tenanted G-Cloud services to the UK Government and Health Services.

“Implementing an ICT solution for any UK government department or health authority presents a number of challenges to any service provider. The biggest of these being the initial implementation and on-going maintenance of the security provision. This is further complicated when you are handling sensitive and confidential data at restricted level,” said Rhys Sharp, SCC’s Public Sector CTO.

“The opportunity to provide cloud services to the public sector is huge, but the approach you need to take when designing, building and accrediting a solution needs to be extremely precise. In such scenarios, VMware’s technology stack allowed us to create a secure multi-tenanted cloud platform that conforms to the most demanding security needs of the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance (formerly CESG) while still having a flexible and affordable Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering.”

While the UK government has strict guidelines for implementing security for G-Cloud, SCC believes that the easily accessible, well-defined and clear processes for adhering to those rules undermine arguments that the current accreditation process is too complex. The firm believes that by implementing the range of best practice solutions already available to the market, the opportunity to supply VMware-powered cloud services to government customers is potentially huge.

Andy Tait, former Cabinet Office G-Cloud Deputy Director and now Head of Public Sector Strategy at VMware, commented: “We’re delighted to have contributed to SCC’s significant achievement of securing Pan Government Accreditation for these initial cloud services. This achievement has generated a lot of excitement across the public sector, and represents a highly significant landmark in Britain’s race to create a new generation of highly secure, flexible and cost-effective IT services, that will enable the continued transformation of Public Service IT delivery.”
 

Speaking at the Efficient ICT 2012 conference in London last week, SCC’s UK Public Sector Director challenged the private sector to take a more direct role in championing the introduction of green technologies to government IT. Drawing upon the example of it’s own multi-million pound investment in the UK’s first Pan-Government accredited Cloud solution, the company warned commercial enterprises that in order to create a public infrastructure capable of returning the efficiencies and environmental performance demanded, they will have to take more responsibility for its creation and delivery.

“While it has long been a trait of industry to hang back, watch from the sidelines and wait for government to act before it introduces green technology offerings for the public sector, that approach is no longer tenable. In the current economic environment, with budgetary constraints rampant, the private sector must be prepared to work in partnership with civic authorities and invest in creating the tools they need to deliver a more effective, more environmentally friendly generation of services,” said Tracy Westall, SCC’s UK Public Sector Director.

The call for increased industry participation and investment comes a month after it was announced that SCC’s OptimiseCloud™ service had become the first to receive Pan-Government accreditation for IL2 and IL3. Pointing to a two year development path and seven figure investment in the platform, Westall said that the private sector must be prepared to make similar commitments if it wants to see the UK infrastructure continue to evolve.

Westall added: “Public sector interest in the performance and environmental potential offered by Cloud has been evident for some time, but they needed services they could use in order to turn that into concrete action. We responded by delivering an accredited service and the reaction to that has been hugely encouraging. It has demonstrated that we can no longer simply wait for Government to ask, but instead need to innovate, challenge and debate as well as demonstrate how desirable and affordable these technologies are.”

Westall’s call for a more proactive approach from the ICT industry when engaging with the public sector was followed by a keynote speech from Department of Energy & Climate Change CIO Jennifer Rigby, who confirmed that e-procurement and cloud will drive the government's green IT strategy. Also chair of the cross-departmental green ICT delivery unit GDU, she underlined the need for the more efficient use of technology in order to meet the government’s carbon reduction targets.

Rigby commented: "Government ICT strategy is there to deliver better public services at a lower cost; to improve productivity through re-use and sharing; to reduce waste through harmonising IT infrastructure such as PSN [public services network]; and to make us more transparent around what we do with ICT, how we use it, its impact and its cost."

The accredited Secure Multi-Tenanted Cloud service (SMTC) is part of a broader strategy built on the firm's long-term investment in Cloud technology. The company unveiled a £25 million state of the art Data Centre facility in October 2010 - subsequently voted Green Data Centre of the Year in 2011 – and is focused upon delivering advanced, cost-effective Cloud services for the public sector.

“We’re delighted. Our customers have been talking about G-Cloud for a long time, but their adoption of services was hampered by the lack of accredited solution. That situation has changed. We took a leading role from the beginning and it was important to us to remain focused on our vision and the goal of building a real G-Cloud service – think Amazon but built for the UK Public Sector, hosted in an environmentally friendly UK data centre, operated by a UK Company” said Tracy Westall, SCC’s UK Public Sector Director.

Traditionally dominated by large system integrators, the public sector outsource market is set for revitalisation in response to UK government plans that challenge the way IT has been delivered.

Following accreditation SCC can now supply IL2 and IL3 Cloud services to the public sector, maximising the concept of the Cloud by nurturing an effective multi-tenanted environment built around concepts such as pay-per-use, leveraged infrastructure, capacity on demand and access for new software players.

With a successful public sector track record going back 30 years, SCC is well versed in both the opportunities and the challenges involved, with suppliers and government organisations alike facing a number of entrenched issues around security and communication.

Of significant importance to the SME community is expected to be the SMTC platform’s ability to deliver Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to make access to public sector easier for those small businesses offering Cloud-based solutions. SCC continues to the drive development of SaaS as a matter of priority, with SME suppliers now afforded a truly effective route to market, enabling them to compete on a level playing field with larger suppliers via the newly accredited Cloud platform.

Westall added: “Undoubtedly, the SMEs we already work with will soon begin to challenge large software providers. The fact that we have proactively addressed the fundamental issues that plague smaller firms looking to do business with the public sector – such as the cost of entry, security and the lack of tangible business that usually underpins investment - means that what SCC has done is very difficult to replicate. As a company that began life as an SME, we have a very real understanding of the challenges facing smaller operations.”

In May 2012, Informatics Merseyside announced it had appointed SCC as it Strategic Partner for Cloud delivery and a core of what will be delivered through this partnership will sit in the newly accredited platform. Informatics Merseyside is a Health Informatics organisation operating as a shared service across a range of health organisations and has embraced the vision of what Cloud can do to impact clinical excellence and 21st Century delivery.

Adopting a transparent approach throughout the development process to ensure that that the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance (formerly CESG) and Government stakeholders were made aware of any challenges and any concerns were faced head-on, SCC built its solution from scratch, identifying this as the only viable route to achieve the desired outcome.

Convinced that this foresight has enabled the company to achieve significant advantage over its competitors, Westall explained:

“Achieving IL3 accreditation was always the target for us because this area has previously been closed to the broader supplier community, yet is also a key point at which massive government costs could be challenged. As we progressed with our plan it became clear that the reason that no one had ever tackled this before is because it is difficult to do, and I do not believe we could have achieved what we have inside such tight timescales had we not invested in a greenfield build. A retrospective accreditation fit would have been almost impossible and certainly more expensive.”

A platform including secure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) on a Virtual Machine/Terabyte basis with IL2 and IL3 in the same physical infrastructure, the rubber stamped cloud solution enables reduced cost delivery of traditionally expensive services by maximising the return from costs generated from equipment, management layer and network infrastructure.

While an avid supporter of the programme, Westall points out that SCC’s journey has not been without challenges.

“With no contract comfort to underwrite the investment and limited access to Government to test our ideas it has been a long journey and an expensive one. Clearly this represents a significant risk, but we believe the potential rewards outweigh any dangers and are confident of its future success.”

Having gained a reputation as a company that understands Cloud technology and what it can do for an organisation, SCC has targeted the opportunity to deliver and transform public sector delivery through large scale investment and commitment of resources. Reflected in many of its customer engagements from SMEs to large organisations, many commentators believe that its recognised expertise and drive has underpinned the G-Cloud development process.

Home Office IT Director Denise McDonagh, G-Cloud Programme Director said: “Increased use of technology, and the Cloud in particular, provide a fantastic opportunity for public sector organisations to be more efficient and the G-Cloud programme is about establishing a flexible, cost-effective framework which is also secure and meets the needs of the public sector so we're delighted that SCC is the first UK provider to gain Pan Government Accreditation.”

Making savings in these tough economic conditions is a major consideration for any business however large or small and it is a serious factor when deciding whether to move to cloud.

The commercial model for cloud is very different to running IT infrastructure on a Do It Yourself basis when you need to buy your own equipment and software, pay for its upkeep and all the associated costs which are involved in making sure everything runs smoothly.

Cloud removes this expense because all your technology is deployed elsewhere rather than on your premises and is delivered back as a service and there for an operational cost, so you are making cost savings from a capital point of view as well as not having to train staff to remain up-to-date with the latest software.

Cloud is about high levels of automation and simplifying IT this allows service providers to minimise operational costs and on top of that they are able to leverage of economies of scale they achieve through pooling and efficient use of infrastructure. At SCC, we are able to leverage the significant relationships we have with the major hardware vendors giving us the ability to purchase equipment from vendors at a lower price than that bought by individual businesses.

At the same time, clients only pay for the amount of application, platform and infrastructure that they use as we operate a utility or pay as you go model. Compare this to an on-premise solution owned and run by a customer where they using only five or ten per cent from their server they are paying for 100 per cent. With cloud, if you use only five or ten per cent then you only pay for that.

This means cloud can often be more cost efficient which is an important factor when looking at the running costs of a business – and that certainly makes financial sense.

We are presently undergoing the pan-government accreditation process with CESG – the government’s security arm – on the approval of our platform for public sector use to become an accredited IT supplier.

The fact we are aiming for a pan-government accredited platform means that if a software company wishes to deploy an application into our Infrastructure as a Service, we will have negated approximately 70 per cent of the security accreditation process and cost.

This is a laborious and expensive process to attain but the possibility of deploying software to a pre-accredited platform will clearly reduce the costs to government and the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) community, but it will also reduce the time it takes to deploy new software solutions the impact of which could be enormous.

Making it easier and cheaper to deploy accredited software is key to the Government agenda for engaging more SME companies in government in order to drive innovation, traditionally the costs and time associated with the securing of solutions has prohibited the SME community from participating in delivering solutions to Government, this new era of pre-accredited Government ready infrastructure platforms means that more ISVs will be able to deliver innovative but compliant solutions to the Public Sector.

It will mean we will become a one-stop shop for this particular area of cloud – exciting times!