Andrew, who has already won a string of high profile prizes, has made the shortlist for the Channel Entrepreneur of the Year award. The award, which will be handed out by trade publication Comms Business, will be presented in a ceremony that recognises excellence and innovation among IT resellers, vendors, distributers and service providers.

The winner of this, and other prizes at the Comms Business Awards 2012, will be announced at an awards dinner at Lancaster London on 21 June.

Having started Node4 at the age of 23 and growing at an impressive rate, Andrew has already been recognised as European Data Centre Entrepreneur of the Year last year at a separate awards ceremony.

He said, “I am overjoyed at being recognised in this way and being nominated for this award. It’s always an honour when you are shortlisted for prize within the industry you are passionate about.

“Entrepreneurship is about listening to the demands of the marketplace, finding the product or service that caters to that need and doing so in a way that pleases and surpasses the expectations of your customers. In everything we have done at Node4, we have taken every care to remain relevant and cutting edge with our offering and solutions such as the n4Cloud have helped a number of companies to take advantage of the many benefits of the cloud. As the technology evolves, our challenge will be to maintain our reputation as an industry leader.”

Provident Financial, the UK’s leading provider of personal credit products, used the move of its Bradford headquarters as an opportunity to reassess its IT infrastructure and decided to relocate its data centre, which was formerly on site. The new deal, which builds on their previous relationship with data centre provider Node4, will allow Provident Financial to keep control of their equipment but have peace of mind that it will be housed in a suitable purpose built environment.

Provident Financial issued a tender to find a company that would help facilitate its move by providing it with a data centre that would be secure enough to host all of its vital data. At the same time, it was also important that this data centre would be within a close enough proximity to enable the technicians to gain easy access. As a result of this, Node4’s data centre in Wakefield was an ideal location for Provident Financial’s service.

Node4 supplied Provident Financial with data centre space with an infrastructure spanning two separate sites. It also provided a wide area network that connects the two data centres together resiliently, and also incorporates the Provident Financial head office. Within the service, Node4 also included ‘remote hands’ where its technical team can carry out minor jobs on Provident Financial’s behalf so frequent trips to the data centre aren’t necessary.

Andrew Clark, IT Transition Manager at Provident Financial, said, “Our original head office had a data centre in it that had grown organically. It wasn’t a purpose-built environment as such and there were a number of issues that arose as a result. We looked at building our own data centre within our new head office but there were a number of constraints such as space, power and cost. Being a data centre provider or builder isn’t our core competence. That’s what led us to go out and do an ITT to have a look at the market and ultimately we decided to work with Node4 for the project.

“The remote hands facility in particular gives us confidence. We can rest assured that the Node4 team know our environment and are more than capable to action our requests when needed and do the job as an equivalent to one of our IT staff when smaller tasks need performing.”

At its old data centre, Provident Financial had a large server estate which had a lot of dated equipment. There was a number of large enterprise class storage arrays, and the data on there was key to our business. Despite this, Provident Financial had just one weekend to make the transition. They were confident, however, that they would be moving their data to be housed with a provider that understood their needs.

“Node4 are an extremely capable, flexible and agile company who are at all times happy to meet our needs”, says Andrew Clark. “We put some non-standard requests to them, and they go out of their way to help us in any way, shape or form. The relationship we have with Node4 is one of the best ones we have with a third party. The service that we get, the sort of value-add, and the confidence that we get from the Node4 team is exceptional.”

The comments follow a speech from the Employment Minister Chris Grayling to the Policy Exchange. He argued that firms should repatriate their overseas call centres to boost the number of jobs available in the UK at a time when vacancies are scarce.    

Andrew Gilbert, Managing Director of Node4, said, “We witnessed a period of seeing far too many companies outsource their contact centres overseas in a bid to save costs. However, this is a false economy when you factor in the dissatisfaction many customers have when speaking with customer service staff that don’t match their expectations. We have found that through making an investment in the right technology and implementing it in UK centres, companies can add value instead of detracting from it. At a time when there are falling loyalty rates among customers, areas such as this demand immediate attention.

“There is a growing trend among more progressive companies who are investing in call centres in the UK and are making a positive feature of it in their marketing and communications to the customers and target markets. This is helping drive growth and differentiate them from their competitors.”

Node4 recently struck a partnership deal with multimedia contact centre specialists Zeacom to offer a hosted calling platform that helps businesses to become more efficient and help contact centre staff to deal with customers more effectively. It is delivered through Node4’s cloud based infrastructure and is offered on a ‘pay as you go’ basis. It includes a dashboard that details how quickly calls are answered, how many calls are received and peaks and troughs during each day. Managers can then act on this data by having the right amount of specialists available for most types of enquiries, route calls to the most suitable members of staff and use sophisticated techniques to make various cost savings in many areas.

Andrew continued, “Customer demands have changed drastically over the last few years and so must the way they contact customer service departments. They expect their experience to be smoother and to have their queries handled by the right person without being passed from pillar to post. If companies have the tools to facilitate this without having to pay for the costs upfront, there will be no need for overseas centres that are quickly falling out of favour. At a time when there is the requirement for improved customer service and a need for jobs in the UK, this presents a fantastic opportunity to take action.”

Andrew Gilbert, Managing Director of data centre and communications firm Node4 began his company at age 23, being a part of what is now considered the troubled 16-24 age bracket. He seized an opportunity to set up his company that has grown 363% over the last five years and now has a turnover in excess of £11m per year.

He said, “The 16-24 age range is a very significant period for young people in the formative years of their working lives. Many talented young people who are struggling to get their foot on the career ladder will be forced by the economic conditions to set up their own enterprises. Many people had great ideas in the past for new businesses but may not have had the courage to go it alone. In the current economic climate, the severe constraints we currently have make starting up a business a much more appealing option.

“At the age of 23, I was very fortunate in that I had an idea for my business which I felt could work but I also had the courage to follow through along with supportive investors. But at the centre of my plan was the desire to control my own destiny and develop my idea to empower businesses to save money through technology. Today, that dream has resulted in Node4 owning a string of rapidly growing data centre sites across the UK, making us Britain’s largest independent provider of local data centres. What UK industry needs is for more young people to be more enterprising by researching their ideas and applying their talents, bright minds and aspirations to the world of business.”

Transport and logistics companies are currently looking at keeping costs low as they manage the myriad of challenges that growth presents. These include erratic consumer demand, supplier risk brought about by fuel worker disputes, fluctuating foreign exchange rates and increased transport costs. Managers in the sector are being urged to outsource their IT to the cloud in a move that will mean operational costs are more manageable with a rental based solution as opposed to upfront capital expenditure fees.

The hybrid cloud (a combination of public cloud and internal infrastructure) is now emerging as one of the foremost trends in IT for the next three years. Data centre and communication specialist Node4 has strengthened its offering by including hybrid cloud options within its new n4Cloud solution to respond to the changing needs of its customers and has received positive feedback on its services.

Andrew Gilbert, Managing Director at Node4, said, “A one size fits all approach to cloud computing doesn’t work and that’s why our cloud solution has been well received. When companies have the freedom to pay only for the services they need and do so on an ongoing basis it immediately becomes an attractive proposition. As a number of challenges in the transport and logistics sector are affecting the bottom line, the cloud will help to steady ongoing costs.

“We need to get away from the thinking that ‘the cloud’ is just one solution that will either work for your business or it won’t. It’s a wealth of options that can be applied in many instances so whether you’re using it for storage, applications or unified communications, there are benefits to outsourcing to the cloud. Hybrid is just one way that IT management can evolve in a way that keeps many processes in tact but at the same time adds functionality, boosts flexibility and has high levels of security.”

Node4-Giordana, our new British UCI Europe Tour team will be officially unveiled 7th March at Trentham Gardens.

Malcolm Elliott will manage the new squad with new signings that include top young Irish rider Phil Lavery. We have also secured Rico Rogersa 34 year old New Zealander, a major signing for the new team. He will be our sprinter, he has a formidable record including a stage win in the Tour of China.

More details soon

Data centre and communications firm Node4 has launched n4Cloud, its new cloud infrastructure. n4Cloud is a high quality, high specification infrastructure that offers organisations flexibility by allowing them to build their own cloud-based solution using a ‘pick and mix’ approach.

Node4’s n4Cloud utilises the company’s network of four data centres to allow organisations to select which services they require and outsource the hosting of their infrastructure, applications and services to suit their current business strategy. n4Cloud consists of a range of components that includes n4Compute (virtual server platform), n4Store (storage platform) and n4Balance (load balancing infrastructure). By choosing from the seven available components, users can pay only for what they need without buying services they don’t. To complete the solution, customers have the option to add on licences that can also be paid for on a monthly basis using Node4’s agreements with software vendors such as Microsoft, VMware and Citrix.

The service was developed to reflect the different ways businesses use cloud computing to access their IT solutions. For instance, n4Cloud can be part of a hybrid cloud whereby two or more clouds (either public or private) remain separate entities but are bound together by standardised technology. This means that a company has the flexibility and control over which of its IT assets it wishes to outsource.

Companies that wish to build their own infrastructure within the private cloud can make use of Node4’s expertise to provide secure and resilient hosting from their data centres and dedicated connectivity to a company’s sites and the internet. Best of breed technology such as Cisco UCS servers and EMC storage deliver a reliable service through purpose built hardware.   

n4Cloud highlights one of the major benefits of cloud technology – the ability to reduce capital expenditure and replace significant upfront costs with operational costs. Instead of the hefty initial cost of IT equipment, n4Cloud allows firms to pay a monthly fee for the service they need. In addition, the dynamic, flexible nature of the infrastructure means users can continue to add or modify their services as their business requirements and budgets dictate.

A vital component of the n4Cloud is the n4Portal – the intuitive control element of the n4Cloud. It is a powerful online web portal that manages various parts of the service and performs administrative tasks. It is where users can easily regulate what is a comprehensive collection of products.

With Node4’s reputation in cloud computing already established, n4Cloud allows companies to rest assured that their IT applications are delivered through an infrastructure that is reliable and well maintained. Node4 is responsible for everything including security, power and cooling at their data centres so companies are left to concentrate on the core functions of their businesses, while in-house IT staff can focus on business strategy instead of their time being swallowed up by menial maintenance tasks.

Andrew Gilbert, Managing Director of Node4, said, “Whether a company is looking to introduce virtualised environments, unified comms, enhanced disaster recovery or storage, we have created the n4Cloud to be a bespoke option for their requirements. We’ve seen growing numbers of businesses looking to move to a cloud infrastructure but don’t necessarily have the resources in house or the upfront capital to invest in the project. With our n4Cloud solution, our leading edge technology and established expertise enable customers to confidently establish themselves in the cloud in a cost effective way whereby they only pay for the services they want, when they want them.

“Node4 has been leading from the front in terms of innovation in cloud computing since we opened our first data centre in 2004. The n4Cloud is the evolution of our award winning service that is built from the ground up with our customers in mind. Our customers want their IT provisions to be built around them in a way that offers flexibility but also has high levels of support and security. The end result is a service that we believe will enable more people to set up cloud infrastructures than ever before.”  

ENDS

For more details see our n4Cloud page or meet us at our event 19th April at Cisco, Bedfont Lakes register your place today.

This Reader Vote Award is now live and will run until 18^th May.

By 2014 more than 50% of global workloads will take place in the cloud, rising to 57% by 2015, predicts Cisco’s Global Cloud Index. For 2010, that number was just 21%. By 2015, one-third of data centre traffic will be cloud traffic. Cloud computing, and “meeting the big data challenge” are two of Gartner’s Top Ten strategic technology trends for 2012.

Midlands’s data centre and unified communications provider Node4 is very much a company to watch in this space. Founded by cloud visionary and 2011 Data Centre Entrepreneur of the Year Andrew Gilbert, its mission is to transform the way that organisations manage data in the UK. Selecting sites situated close to the UK’s large cities such as Northampton, Derby and Leeds, to build its state-of-the-art data centres, Node4 is catering to the many UK businesses wishing to store their data close to where they do business.

Following this strategy, the company has already become the UK’s largest independent provider of data centres, and is currently preparing to go live with its fifth UK data centre in Leicester. The company reached a phenomenal £11 million turnover in the space of just eight years, and has maintained a growth rate of 60% year on year for the last three years in a tough economic climate.

What Node4 supplies are clearly in great demand. A report commissioned by BT Engage IT learned that 70% of CIOs across a broad range of UK industries, and 76% of small business CIOs, thought virtualisation and cloud-based technologies had had the biggest positive impact on their businesses last year. At a time when every business is going through its IT budgets with a fine toothcomb, this is head turning news. And businesses are getting increasingly knowledgeable now about where cloud can help them. Gartner records a trend of enterprises moving away from merely trying to understand the cloud, to making targeted decisions on which workloads to implement on it.

Node4’s Andrew Gilbert looks forward to continuing growth in this area: “We expect there to be further adoption of the cloud in 2012”, he predicts, “as increasing numbers of companies want to take advantage of the flexibility, increased efficiency, resource and cost savings, and sheer peace of mind offered by our network of secure, reliable and resilient local data centres. At a time when cost pressures loom large, the lower maintenance costs are a great incentive, as well as the ability of spread them into operational expenditure rather than taking the hit upfront.

“Node4’s hybrid solution of a private cloud with a shared infrastructure helps address some of the fears that initially surrounded the technology. Finally, it’s all part of helping to smooth the way for the UK’s data-rich, knowledge-based economy to emerge out of recession and into recovery and growth.”

Node4 also offers a wide range of options on connectivity, as well as hosted telephony with up-to-the minute functionality, and all of this is supported by Node4’s impeccable customer service. Node4 prides itself on listening closely to its customers and delivering what they really want. This means customers can concentrate on doing what they do best, running their businesses, secure in the knowledge that their IT needs are fully taken care of. In challenging economic times, this is an invaluable competitive advantage and is the reason why, when comes to the cloud, Node4 is definitely the company to watch in 2012.

Node4 receives esteemed Cisco recognition

Node4 has announced that it has achieved the Advanced Unified Computing Technology Specialisation from Cisco in the UK.

This accreditation reflects the rigorous requirements Node4 has met and enables the company to sell, deploy and support highly sophisticated applications-based Cisco Unified Computing System technology solutions. The system enables users to better utilise data centres by building a simplified, yet powerful infrastructure that reflects the needs of the 21st century business user.

Node4 has already received recognition from Cisco both as a Premier Certified Partner and as winner of the Innovation of the Year Award for the UK and Ireland.

Andrew Gilbert, the managing director of Node4 said, “This is recognition we are particular proud of because Cisco is highly regarded within the industry. Ever since we became partners of theirs in 2004, we have endeavoured to utilise their technology to enable users to get the best out of our service. The specialism also acknowledges the fact that Node4 employs the best of breed technology and will continue to do so as the reliability and performance of our services are paramount.