Cloud News East Africa

A partnership pushing business forward

The cloud is here to stay. These words have resonated through the channel for most of 2014 and they are not planning to change at the start of and throughout the New Year. This is the opinion of technical manager for AtomGate, Grant Hansen.

AtomGate is a managed services and IT solutions provider that is working with its clients, and a host of leading technology vendors and partners, to help its customers migrate to cloud.

As the demand for cloud computing grows, so does the need for products that enable seamless cloud integration within businesses. AtomGate has formed a strategic partnership with value-added distributor Westcon, to assist it in enabling customers to transform their businesses by embracing cloud infrastructure.

Technology differentiator

"From a go to market point of view, Office 365 is one of our core focuses because it can completely alter the way our customers do business. We have implemented Office 365 at AtomGate which means we can share with our customers, the benefits we have experienced first-hand. Working with WestconGroup we develop a presales strategy, gaining a full understanding of the product through the value-added services the distributor has to offer and then we take this model over to our customers, working with them right from an implementation to a delivery point of view," says Hansen.

The ultimate benefit of Office 365 according to Hansen is that it is always accessible. Businesses that move from on-premise solutions to Office 365 will start to work differently in that if servers go down, business can continue regardless. Hansen highlights that in AtomGate's experience Office 365 is perfect for SMBs because costly hardware that needs refreshing every three or so years falls away and Office 365 offers a consistent price point with no extra storage requirements.

Sound principles

"Business in the current economic climate is evolving into an 'always on' mind set because the cloud and the subsequent mobility it enables allows people to work anywhere. Your customers want to be able to communicate with you regardless of where you are and Microsoft has developed Office 365 for this purpose. It's your business, on any device. Mail is always accessible which is vital since most modern businesses are run on email. I believe use of this solution will continue to grow," says Hansen.

"What we are still seeing, in some cases, is a reluctance to implement or move to the cloud because of security issues, but if businesses don't start the move toward the cloud they will be risking the security and survival of their businesses altogether. We work with our resellers to help them to help their customers. In terms of Microsoft, we help with licensing, training and delivering reliable cloud solutions. Office 365 is definitely a step in the right direction for businesses," says Leane Hannigan, Business Practice Director of Cloud at WestconGroup.

This partnership has seen benefits that are two fold. Not only has AtomGate gained a competitive advantage by building components of its own business around Office 365, it has also been able to leverage the insights it has gained from this, to build models that enable its customers do the same. This coupled with it leveraging the value added services, training and specialist support services of Westcon to act as an extension of its own team, has enabled it to establish itself as a formidable player in the Office 365 market.

"Office 365 provides all the functionality of a normal exchange server, but in the cloud. You are always backed up, never lose access to your email and there is no additional learning needed because employees using Office will already be familiar with the operating system. This is a solution that will only grow," says Hansen.

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