The cloud can be delivered in many formats, but in the majority of cases applications will be remote from the customers, partners and users who need to access them.  That makes wide area network (WAN) connectivity a critical part of the solution and companies need to consider the consequences of poor performance or even connectivity failure on their business, customers and users.

Unfortunately connectivity services are not all the same making it important to look at more than mere headline bandwidth figures. Indeed simply buying bandwidth while relying on basic ISP broadband services may be a false economy. Instead companies should seek out business-grade services such as leased lines, IP VPN, Ethernet, Fibre Optic Broadband and other next generation network services to connect offices and mobile workers with the applications and data they need to do their work.

Equally it is important to work with service providers who understand the needs of business and the demands they place on their connectivity services. Companies should choose partners prepared to do more than simply deliver vanilla services and hide behind a basic service level agreement. Rather that they should choose providers able to tailor services designed specifically to meet business needs with proactive management and direct access to expert, friendly and local support when required.

For many, too, the ability to host cloud-based services AND deliver connectivity will be important, as will the location of both the datacentres involved and the staff servicing them.

Questions relating to bandwidth, latency and security still need to be asked, but equally crucial are those relating to quality and service levels as these can differ significantly. In this Computing white paper, therefore, we look at, not just the technological pain points experienced by buyers of cloud connectivity services, but the quality and service related issues they need to investigate when making purchase decisions.

In just a few short years, cloud computing has gone from an experimental concept only to be considered by those comfortable at the leading edge of technology, to an increasingly acceptable adjunct and possible alternative to the traditional in-house data centre.

This rapid evolution is partly down to a growing understanding of what cloud computing is all about and an appreciation of the cost savings to be had from its use, but also to a rapid growth in services designed specifically to meet the needs of businesses across a wide range of industries. As a result cloud computing is rapidly moving up the IT agenda with companies large and small increasingly prepared to include public and private cloud platforms in their deliberations, both when looking to deploy new applications and upgrade existing systems.

Unfortunately, whether considering a new cloud deployment or the migration of current applications the emphasis tends to be on the cloud computing services themselves and the way they work. Concentrating, for example, on the computing infrastructure required; the way in which applications are configured and managed; the scalability and availability of services and, of course, at areas such as security, storage and regulatory compliance.

Far less attention is given to the connectivity required to support cloud-based applications which, as highlighted in a recent online survey of more than 100 Computing readers, is just as important when it comes to getting the cloud computing equation right.

To access the complete white paper, simply click “Making the right connections“

Roll over ISDN, SIP Trunking is the way forward for business voice, delivering an unbeatable combination of cost savings, convergence, scalability and flexibility. It’s not just that SIP Trunking offers more affordable connection, rental and call charges than ISDN; it also offers benefits that the old technology can’t hope to match.

SIP Trunking is a fairly simple and mature technology, enabling voice communications between your company’s private telephone system, the PBX, and the wider telephone network through the same connection used to carry data between your in-house infrastructure and your ISP. By choosing a Business grade SIP solution, like our own Business Talk SIP, your organisation can enjoy lower connection and line rental charges than with ISDN, and also less expensive calls.

This, however, is only the beginning. If your business is spread across multiple sites, SIP trunking allows for free calls between them. SIP Trunking is also a more flexible technology. Numbers aren’t tied into geographic locations, allowing you to present a single, unified presence for your company no matter how spread out it is across the country, or provide your business with a widespread local presence from a single office. In fact, numbers can be re-routed with ease, meaning that your numbers don’t have to change if your company moves office. And if something disastrous happens, you can simply re-route the most important lines to a temporary location.

With just one supplier for both voice and data there are more cost-savings, plus the convenience of having one point of contact to manage both. Meanwhile, the ease with which new lines can be provisioned gives your business room to scale dynamically. You don’t need more lines as long as you have bandwidth, and it’s a trivial job to turn on more capacity.  It’s no wonder, then, that SIP Trunks are rapidly becoming the chosen solution for new voice deployments. However, some businesses won’t give up on ISDN easily. Despite all the benefits of SIP, they still believe that ISDN offers them a more reliable and consistent option. This isn’t groundless, but it’s based on a dated view of the technology, and on experience of providers who haven’t done SIP Trunking right.

SIP Trunking depends upon connectivity. Without a robust, high bandwidth connection to work on, SIP Trunks are limited in terms of the number of lines they can support, and the quality of calls degrades as the bandwidth reaches breaking point. This has never been an issue for large companies with high-speed, Leased Line connectivity, but what about those reliant on a slower connection, or on Broadband?

Luckily, with so many fast, reliable connectivity services available, this is no longer a barrier to adoption. Between Broadband, Fibre Optic Broadband, Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM), Ethernet with Next-Generation Access (NGA) and Leased Line, there’s a good solution for any size of company. And this is where Zen’s expertise comes in. We won’t try to pack voice services onto a connection that won’t support them, and we can help companies match their connectivity to their SIP Trunking needs.

Zen also ensures a reliable service. Our Business Talk SIP solution is based on our own advanced core network, managed and monitored 24/7 by an expert in-house team. We have the skills to optimise the connection for voice traffic, and we’re constantly testing with a variety of PBX equipment. What’s more, we eat our own dog food: we rely on the same services to run our own business, which means we’re aware of any issues before our customers are – and we fix them as quickly as we can.

Security is another common concern, but not with Business Talk SIP. In our solution user names and passwords are linked to the IP range of the Zen connection used to make calls, and an encrypted authentication takes place between the connection and the Zen SIP platform.

Our Business Talk SIP solutions also work brilliantly as a full or partial replacement for traditional analogue or digital ISDN lines. They work seamlessly with lines provided by another party, or it’s easy and cost effective to migrate to our own Business Talk ISDN2 and ISDN30 services, paving the way for a full move to Business Talk SIP later on. We don’t believe in telling our customers what to do, but we do believe in helping them to make the best choice. SIP Trunking really is the future.

You’ll be able to find out more about SIP Trunking by visiting our website.

Some of the websites I have listed provide a wealth of information that can help to educate and support children when using the internet too. Although Zen is not responsible for any of the content these websites contain I have selected those that I feel offer some of the best information available on the respective topics they cover.

• Knowthenet

Knowthenet provides advice and tips on how you can make the most of your online experience catering for both the net savvy and beginner alike.

It is an impartial website that helps individuals, families and businesses get the most out of the internet. It is funded by Nominet – the not-for-profit organisation responsible for the smooth and secure running of the .uk internet infrastructure – as part of its commitment to making the internet a more trusted space for everyone who uses it.

Their website offers impartial advice to help you stay safe and secure online and includes a range of security and online safety information designed to help you steer clear of potential online dangers including identity theft, phishing, credit card fraud and cyberbullying.

You can even see how well you really know the net with a fun test here

• Get Safe Online

Get Safe Online provides easy-to-understand information on online safety. It’s website provides you with practical advice on how to protect yourself, your computers and mobiles device and even your business against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other problems encountered online.

It contains guidance on many other related subjects too – including performing backups and how to avoid theft or loss of your computer, smartphone or tablet. The site has a wealth of topics that includes – safe online shopping, gaming and even dating.

Get Safe Online is a jointly funded initiative between several Government departments and private sector businesses.

• CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre)

CEOP helps to protect children from sexual exploitation and specifically helps children and young people to stay safe and secure online.

It operates an online reporting mechanism called the Report Abuse function that allows children, young people and adults to report suspicious and inappropriate activity online.

• Childnet

Childnet’s mission is to work in partnership with others globally to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.

Childnet work directly with children and young people from the ages of 3 to 18 on a weekly basis, as well as with their parents, carers, teachers and teaching assistants, finding out about their real experiences online, and the positive things they are doing as well as sharing safety advice.

Social Networking is a real concern for many parents and Childnet has an excellent resource here that gives lots of helpful guidance.

• Internet Watch Foundation

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) was established in 1996 by the internet industry to provide the UK internet Hotline for the public and IT professionals to report criminal online content in a secure and confidential way.

The Hotline service can be used anonymously to report content within the IWF’s remit and should you inadvertently spot any content within the IWF’s remit you can report it here.

Working in Partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, and international partners the IWF work hard to minimise the availability of this content, specifically:

• child sexual abuse images hosted anywhere in the world
• criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK
• non-photographic child sexual abuse images hosted in the UK

• Beatbullying – CyberMentors

CyberMentors is a unique, safe, youth-branded social networking site that has become extremely popular with young people aged 11-18, for peer and professional support and advice on cyberbullying. It educates young people about the importance of online personal safety and gives practical advice.

• Bank Safe Online

Bank Safe Online is the UK banking industry’s initiative to help online banking customers stay safe online.

• Action Fraud

Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud reporting centre run by the government agency, the National Fraud Authority. If you have been a victim of online fraud you can report it to Action Fraud, by using their online reporting tool or speaking to one of their advisors.

• UK Safer Internet Centre

The UK Safer Internet Centre is coordinated by a partnership of three leading organisations; Childnet International, the South West Grid for Learning and the Internet Watch Foundation.

It is co-funded by the European Commission and has three main functions: an Awareness Centre, a Helpline and a Hotline. Although I have included some of these groups separately this website delivers a wide range of activity to promote the safe and responsible use of technology under one central resource.

• KidSMART

KidSMART is a fun website again aimed at children but with a wealth of help and information that you should find useful. This area here provides exercises you can do with children to help them in their understanding of how to stay safe online.

If you know of any other interesting online safety or educational sites that you think other customers might be interested in I would be interested in looking at those for possible inclusion in a follow-up future article.  Please e-mail them to me at regulatory@zeninternet.co.uk

The Letter claims that we have met with the Home Office for secret talks regarding the controversial Draft Communications Data Bill. It also claims that the ISPs named haven’t been strong enough in pushing back on this draft Bill along with not giving their customers the opportunity to engage on it.

The Letter came as somewhat of a surprise to us and indeed we are very disappointed at claims that we are in some way involved in an undercover conspiracy with the UK Government to secretly monitor and report on our customers’ Internet activity.

Our engagement to date has been at Industry level with organisations such as The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) and LINX of which we are members. Like others in our Industry, we believe it is important that we are provided with more information regarding the draft Bill in order to understand not only what the Government is proposing but more importantly how that could likely impact Zen and our customers.

I have raised awareness on this subject in blogs on our website:

• http://www.zen.co.uk/blog/the-communications-bill
• http://www.zen.co.uk/blog/communications-data-bill-the-latest

Those customers who subscribe to our customer newsletters may recall that I have also covered the subject of the draft Bill in September and December of 2012 and asked customers to contact me directly should they have any concerns or questions.

In February I also conducted an interview with Computing Magazine which was subsequently published here: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2244320/second-draft-of-gbp18bn-communications-data-bill-is-delayed-until-end-of-march.

As you can see I made it clear that we, like many others have real concerns about the draft Bill and the potential impact not only on ourselves and our customers but also the wider communications industry, as highlighted in the blogs.

We will, like the rest of our Industry await the re-issuing of the draft Bill and will consider it carefully at that time in order that we can understand how it might impact us and our customers.

We have always made it very clear to our customers that we value the integrity of all of their personal data and would not give access to that unless ordered to do so via a court order. Our position in this respect has not changed.

I have replied directly to the Open letter this week re-iterating the above points.

If you have any questions or points of view on this please contact me directly via the email address: regulatory@zeninternet.co.uk

Business Continuity Planning is about anticipating the crises and interruptions that could affect your business, and planning for them.

Knowing what to do in the event of something happening is extremely important for all businesses as failing to recover quickly from a situation can seriously impact the short and long term success of your business.

So what is a Business Continuity Plan?

A Business Continuity Plan lists a series of contingencies that enable key business activities to continue to function in the most difficult circumstances, such as when a vital computer system fails.

The plan sets out clear roles and responsibilities so employees know what to do in the event of a situation occurring.

Why is having a Business Continuity Plan important?

Having a business continuity plan in place means that your business knows what to do in the event of a situation occurring.

If something happens to your business you have a plan that you can turn to which will help your business recover quickly and effectively.

A business continuity plan provides commercial benefits too as companies with business continuity plans are more attractive to do business with. For example, large businesses that rely on the outsourced services of third parties will prefer to work with suppliers who have a Business Continuity Plan in place.

Many businesses adopt a traditional approach to Business Continuity Planning…

Many businesses adopt the more traditional approach in the event of a disruption or disaster, and that traditional approach is to PANIC!

Disruption or disaster comes in many forms – adverse weather, industrial action, vandalism, technical faults, data loss to name a few – and businesses that aren’t prepared and don’t have a plan to turn to will panic and react to the situation, making decisions on the fly.

This can make a bad situation worse and it can lengthen the time it takes for your business to recover.

There are 4 steps to Business Continuity Planning

Creating a business continuity plan is a pretty straightforward affair and it can be broken down in to four simple tasks.

• Knowing your business is about identifying the components which are critical to the day to day operation of your business. This typically includes a combination of people, facilities and IT systems.
• Assess the risks to these components and rate them in terms of likelihood of occurring and the impact they’d have on your business. This is about asking and answering those dreaded “What if…” questions.

It is also important to determine a recovery time objective (RTO) for each component in the plan as this will influence the measures you take to protect them.The RTO is the amount of time that your business can function without a business critical component before it really becomes business critical.

For example, a business that can only tolerate two minutes of email downtime before it becomes business critical will have a different plan for protecting their email platform that a business that can cope for two days.

• Document a plan which details these key components, the risks posed to them, and the action that you will take to mitigate these risks. It is important for the plan to be understood by those involved in executing it as these people will need to know what their responsibilities are should the plan be put in to action.
• Test your plan to ensure that it works as expected and adapt it if it doesn’t. In addition, review the plan to ensure that it reflects your current business critical components.

For example, 12 months ago your website might not have been a business critical component and therefore omitted from your plan. However, today your website might be a key revenue generator for your business and therefore a critical component. If your plan hasn’t been updated to reflect this change then you won’t be prepared in the event that something happens to the availability of your website.

Having an untested, out-of-date plan will be ineffective in the event of a disaster and will give you a false sense of security.

With so many households now having a multitude of Internet connected devices parental controls can implemented at the router or broadband connection, so that every device using that connection is protected.  With this in mind we would like to bring to your attention an effective yet free solution that allows you to do just that with the use of the OpenDNS service by making a configuration change in your home router.

While we cannot endorse this or indeed support it ourselves should you choose to use it, we still feel it is worthy of a mention as some of our own staff members, myself and our Head of Product Management & Marketing included, have used it on our own home connections.

OpenDNS are a US based security company that provides easy-to-implement Internet navigation and Web security solutions for families, schools, government organisations and businesses of various sizes.  Some of their security and parental control services are free and can prevent unintended access to phishing and malware sites as well as to any Web content that you would like to be restricted.

For the purpose of this article we are focusing our attention on the basic parental control option as that is free to all Internet users.

How does it work?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a crucial component to the Internet that is “invisible” to most users.   Think of DNS as an address book for websites.  It is responsible for translating website names into IP Addresses  which are used by computers to communicate with each other.

For example, when you entered the Web address www.zen.co.uk, your computer connected to the DNS and found that the computer of the Zen website is at the IP address 212.23.8.1 Your computer can now interact with our computer systems as you navigate around our website.

When you configure your router to use OpenDNS the Internet browsers, email systems and other Web applications connected via your router will use OpenDNS to translate a web address to an IP address.  For a web address that OpenDNS regards as inappropriate it will not provide a translation to an IP address, this blocks  access from you connection to that address.

Please Note; It will only protect devices within the network that the DNS is set up on so while your router is set with OpenDNS settings it would not protect if you use differing DNS settings per device.

Why is it free and what’s the catch?

It’s free because online safety is important as is the overall security of the Internet in which we all play an important part. There is no catch as OpenDNS provides free and paid for services depending on what you prefer to use.

What does it block/filter?

OpenDNS Basic provides three predefined, easy-to-use filtering levels that block adult content and other inappropriate contents making it very simple to set-up.  You can also customize the Web categories to filter or allow access only to the websites you specify.

In addition, when a user attempts to visit a blocked website they will be directed to a landing page provided by OpenDNS, but customisable by you. If you provide your email address on this page, your users can contact you with questions. Attempts to visit blocked pages are also saved in reports that you can view from your OpenDNS account.

OpenDNS Basic also automatically blocks known identity theft, phishing, malware and botnet websites too not just inappropriate content.

What happens when I change my DNS Settings?

Changing your current DNS settings to the OpenDNS servers is a safe, reversible, and beneficial configuration adjustment that will not harm your computer or your network. There is no software being installed and all configurations for security, Web content filtering and personal preferences are made online in your OpenDNS account, not on your computer or network hardware.

I have to say once I registered my details with OpenDNS it was very easy to set-up and best of all I have not seen any impact on the speed of my internet connection either.  To decide which option of suits you and your needs best, please follow this link http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/parental-controls/

We will continue to work on and build up our Internet safety advice with similar articles as we firmly believe education and awareness for our customers is important.

For further information on online safety the following is very useful  www.knowthenet.org.uk

Who’s using digital marketing?

Although there are no published figures on the amount of UK companies that implement digital marketing tactics, I think it’s a fair assumption to say that most have someone doing digital marketing for them, whether that’s an in house team or an external agency.

A recent report from Econsultancy found that 71% of companies currently involved with digital marketing are planning to increase their budget for it in 2013. Board members, management and staff on the ground are seeing the impact services like SEO, email marketing and social media can have – understandably they want to get ‘buy in’ to their way of thinking, evangelise within their organisations and, more importantly, do more digital marketing.

What are some of the key services, tactics and channels and how can I use them?

If you’re one of the companies looking to increase your digital marketing budget in 2013, the three key areas we’d suggest you look at are:

• SEO (including link building & content marketing)
• Email marketing
• Social media

Used on their own they can provide massive benefits to your company, used together you can improve almost every aspect of your business – from lead generation, client education and support, right through to customer service and product research.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Although the phrase ‘SEO’ is still used, the services and elements that go into modern ‘SEO’ work have changed and developed hugely over time. Much of this change is driven by search engines, primarily Google, making constant changes to the systems that decide how well a website should rank in the search results. It’s fair to say that consumers and internet users drive some of this change too, people want to see, share and link to interesting content – it’s no longer good enough to simply pump out poor quality articles with links back to your website.

Content marketing

Users want great pieces of content, whether that’s images, video, blog posts or other more advanced content – infographics (and interactive infographics), microsites or webinars. This collection of content types (plus many, many others) is referred to as ‘content marketing’. As mentioned above, this content is inherently ‘linkable’ and ‘shareable’. You can earn links as well as build links using content marketing – in fact, an infographic we produced for a client in late 2010 still gets many new links now without any involvement from either us or the client.

Link building

The old and quick methods of link building e.g. low quality directory submissions  article submissions and comment spam, have been devalued by changes Google made last year and shouldn’t be included in your plans for 2013. Tactics such as guest blogging, content marketing (see above) and manual outreach should be on your radar instead.

Guest blogging and manual outreach often go hand in hand – speak to the news sites in your industry, blogs that talk about key issues and give opinions, as well as approaching governing bodies, trade associations, etc. If your company has regular job openings or you have research which may be of use to educational facilities, then speaking to local Universities or Colleges can result in links to your site, for example this page on the University of Kent website has links to potential employers.

Email Marketing

It’s easy to say you’re doing email marketing, tick it off the list, sit back and feel good. But, doing email marketing right is a whole different ball game. If you’re still using your own email client to ‘blast’ out emails to your customers then you should consider using an email service provider. You’ll see so many benefits and your customers will see improvements too.

Service Providers

Ideally you want one that’s web based (not desktop software) and based in the UK (so your customer data isn’t going out of the European Economic Area). These types of services will provide you with excellent tools to manage email campaigns including triggered emails, email editors, initial templates and full reporting systems. You’ll pay for the privilege but it’s a cost that can easily be recouped when you see the range of benefits.

Authentication, Deliverability & Protection

In some systems you’ll be asked to set up a new domain name (or sub domain) to use for email campaigns – i.e. info@new.yourdomain.com. You might not notice it but large companies that email you (Orange, BT, Thorntons, Centre Parcs, Twitter – to name but a few) do this all the time. The new domain is then authenticated using systems including DomainKeys and Sender Policy Framework, improving deliverability levels.

This also helps to protect your main domain, including your day-to-day business emails, from being affected in case of high levels of spam reports.

Drip Campaigns

Planning campaigns around your website content and delivering regular and targeted messages can help create a list of warmed or nurtured prospects. Websites that offer a free download in exchange for your email address are examples of this in action. Good email service providers can automatically send a follow up email, a certain number of days after the download is requested, with supporting content. A final email could be sent a number of days after the second email with final or ‘closing’ content and a call to action.

Social Media

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are littered with profiles and accounts from companies who’ve tried and failed to ‘master social’ or to ‘get a return from social’. What were they doing wrong? They probably had the ‘Field of Dreams’ mentality – build it and they will come. We saw this more frequently with websites in the early part of this century, companies building a site with no regard for SEO and the traffic it would bring them. It still applies to social today, but in a slightly different way.

Find your audience

Is there an audience on social media interested in your company, its products and services? You can see by searching on Twitter whether people are mentioning words and phrases that relate to your company. Also use tools like Followerwonk’s Twitter bio search to identify people with interests that cross over into your industry. All this helps you to see if it’s worth you putting huge efforts into social media, or whether simply having a few customised profiles with regular posts/tweets will suffice.

Social Content

Most companies could create content worthy of social sharing and interaction, it typically takes a good bit of time and/or money but you’ll be surprised at what you can come up with. A trucking jobs website in the USA created an interactive infographic which shows how the country would be affected if all trucks stopped. Sounds simple and maybe a little boring, but the content they’ve created is actually really compelling – and shareable. The result – hundreds of tweets, Facebook shares, Google +1s and other social actions.

Outreach

Taking social one step further than simply sharing content, using it for directly reaching out to potential customers can work really well if done right. Use the tips from the ‘Find your audience’ section above and start slowly. Spend time retweeting a few of their tweets, maybe include them in a tweet, tweet a piece of content from their site – and then contact them directly. Don’t just wade in and pitch your company straight away – you wouldn’t do that at a networking event, so don’t take that approach on social media either.

Facebook is far less useful for direct outreach of this type, but LinkedIn can be a gold mine if your product is B2B. Follow a similar pattern to Twitter, join groups they’re members of and get involved before connecting with them. They’re far more likely to accept a request from you if they’ve already seen you before. From there you’re able to talk via InMail and hopefully make some good business connections and even a few sales.

Let’s see some proof…

We’ve worked with a large range of clients over the past year but here’s just a couple of examples where SEO, email marketing and social media have played a big part.

Lanes for Drains

A range of SEO services including keyword research, content creation and link building have helped Lanes for Drains move into some excellent positions on Google for their top keywords (a mix of generic and local phrases). We’ve increased traffic to the site as well as having a very positive effect on the number of enquiries they receive.

Castle Metals

Focusing on building a new website with improved structure, content and calls to action – our latest work for Castle Metals has seen traffic and enquiries jump up to new highs. We’ve also created great pieces of content including a recently launched infographic which has received 30 tweets, 4 LinkedIn shares, a Google +1 and 8 Facebook shares to date.

easyGym

Increasing the number of members at easyGym’s UK gym network is the number 1 target for our digital marketing work. We also have a large focus on customer service, retention and community building through social media and email. Running competitions, producing fitness content and infographics has helped to draw a large and active audience on Twitter and Facebook. Regular and targeted emails to the current members helps to keep them in the loop and drives involvement in the competitions.

If you’d like to speak to one of our team about your digital marketing plans for 2013, or maybe you’d like us to help define them – contact us and we’ll arrange a chat.

Our new 1350m², 270 rack data centre, located at our North West HQ, hosts a range of Managed Hosting, Managed Cloud Hosting and Colocation Hosting in a secure, closely-managed facility.

We recognise that data centre capacity is the foundation of any cloud based service and we’re committed to ensuring that we have the infrastructure to support the growing needs of our customers. The design of the data centre provides large amounts of capacity but also enables us to lower the cost of entry for customers looking to get involved in delivering cloud or using data centre services.  For example we can now offer Colocation Hosting for £59 per month, enabling even smaller businesses to enjoy the same benefits as larger ones.

As well as our own data centre, we also use third party facilities to provide geographically diverse disaster recovery services to customers. This experience of operating our own data centre and choosing third party data centre suppliers gives us great experience in knowing what to look for in a best of breed data centre provider:

1)      Does the facility have good connectivity and can the provider advise on WAN design to help you get the best from it?

a)      Scalable and resilient connectivity within the data centre is critical. Diverse routing of connections is essential and the availability of dark fibre owned by the DC operator helps keep costs down and maximise capacity. We offer instant access to cost effective bandwidth, all of our colocation products come with 1Gpbs ports as standard together with a free allocation of bandwidth.

b)      The availability of WAN skills and experience of the provider can make a real difference. Data centre only providers can struggle to see the whole picture when your equipment is part of a wider MPLS network. We offer a range of hosting products, MPLS services and Voice/SIP services meaning we have the knowledge on hand to piece together the right solution.

c)       Does the provider have SIP experience/capability? Hosted SIP is tipped to be big in the coming years, if your data centre provider has this capability it can give you a competitive edge.

2)      Can the data centre provider demonstrate the security of their facility?

a)      Physical Security and access control are of key importance for a facility that should support authorised access 24/7. ISO 27001 status can help demonstrate a providers focus on security. We are currently working towards ISO 27001 status and we already implement comprehensive physical security measures (CCTV, Access Control etc).

3)      Can the data centre provider demonstrate their energy efficiency and their environmental responsibility? Things to look for are:

a)      ISO14001 status, this eco-friendly accreditation covers the whole operations of a business, including the impacts of its data centre

b)      A provider’s understanding of their facilities PUE (Power Utilisation Efficiency) and the steps they are taking to improve it. With PUE it’s not just about looking for the lowest numbers, many factors influence the generation of PUE figures. Buyers need to ask how the providers PUE is measured and calculated, good providers will be following the best practices as defined by the EU Code of Conduct (CoC) for data centres. We are currently working towards Participant status with the EU CoC and are happy to share honest PUE figures with potential customers.

4)      Operator or reseller?

a)      If you’re buying colocation, does the provider own and operate their own data centre or are they sub-letting/reselling space in a third party data centre? Operators are always firmly in control so make sure your reseller has a solid relationship with the operator.

b)      ISO 9001 status can help verify quality processes and procedures in data centre operations teams. Zen has been ISO 9001:2008 accredited since 2010.

c)       Does the operator of the data centre have a defined growth plan? Moving equipment between data centres is time and resource consuming so wherever you choose, needs to have plans for expansion in the future and they should be able to share these plans with you. If your business is growing rapidly then you don’t want a lack of data centre capacity to constrain you.

d)      Independence. There’s much consolidation in the data centre market and this can lead to unpredictable costs at contract renewal time and changes in the operational practices in what’s effectively your data centre. Your provider needs to provide you with the confidence that they’re not just in it for the short term and that they’ve got your best interests in mind, choose the provider carefully as they’ll be housing one of your businesses biggest assets.

Want to find out more about our data centre, take the data centre virtual tour.

A revised version of the Code was then issued in July 2010 with the objective of continuing to focus on increasing the overall standard of information that should be made available to consumers and which would help them make more informed choices of service products offered in the broadband market.

Zen of course was committed to signing up to and supporting the code from the outset and have continued to fully support not only the spirit of the Code but also the notion that customers should be given a realistic expectation of the speed of their Broadband service.  While we have always been compliant with the Code we didn’t rest on our laurels and have continued to work hard behind the scenes to improve on it further.

The key requirements have been to ensure Zen customers are provided with a speed range rather than an estimated line speed at the point of sale and that this is recorded. Also, if a customer cannot be provided with the estimated range of speeds provided, customers are entitled to cancel a service without penalty within the first 90-days.

To fully deliver all of the requirements of the Code of Practice, almost all departments within Zen were involved in an initial review of our current systems and processes with Marketing, Legal, Customer Services and Systems Development executing changes that included many reiterations and which have all been carried out with due diligence to ensure compliance was met.

To give you an idea of the work that has been undertaken for compliance, here is a brief guide:

• Training – All Zen staff not just our customer facing teams, were made aware of the Code when it was first introduced in June 2008.  Furthermore all new staff are informed about the Code of Practice during their induction period.  All Zen staff are informed of any additional or revised changes to the Code.

• Information at the point of sale – All new orders go through the process providing them with what their estimated speeds will be.  At which time a customer can decide to go through with their order or cancel.

This particular part of the codes requirements was particularly complex as we had to make changes to all of our online ordering processes that include your Customer Portal, our Partner Portal as well as the main customer Order Process to provide the required speed information and to record it within our own systems and on fulfilment emails etc.

• Accuracy of information on access line speed provided by ISPs – We work closely with our suppliers like BT to ensure we have the latest line estimates, offering the latest results from phone and post code data.

• Managing customers’ speed related problems – We have a robust process for dealing with customer speed issues and make best efforts to ensure we do all we can to maximise possible speeds.

• Presentation of broadband information on the website – We already provide informative product and service articles on our website. We also do not Traffic Shape customers or impose Fair Usage Policies which are adopted with many ISPs.

• Updates to numerous terms and conditions.

Despite our continued exclusion by Ofcom from their speed testing and reporting programme,  we remain confident that our NON traffic managed broadband products offer not only good value but consistent and excellent performance.  We are confident that should Ofcom choose to  include Zen products in their future testing programme  that they will stand out as being as fast if not better than those they are tested alongside of.

There have been many people involved in the delivery of this work to date not least your valuable customer feedback and support that allows us to continue offering some of the fastest products available in the broadband market.

To ensure ISP’s are complying to the code Ofcom will continue to monitor them.  Zen fully supports and welcomes this approach.

A link to the Ofcom website which contains all of the latest information on the Code of Practice can be found here:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/codes-of-practice/broadband-speeds-cop/consumer-guide/

New Website

We’ve now completed the brand new Rochdale Sixth Form College website and it launched in September. This fully content-managed site (see below) allows students to view a prospectus, choose courses and see what goes on around the college. We’re now looking forward to working with the college throughout 2013 and beyond.

Sponsoring the Student Awards

As well as providing our design and development skills, we were also delighted to be asked to provide two prizes for the recent Student Awards night.

Dan and Hayden from Zen Web Solutions presented a Kindle Fire HD tablet to two students, one for exceptional performance over the year, the other for most improved performance. Needless to say the tablets were a welcome surprise for both students just ahead of the Christmas break – we hope they put them to good use!

Angela Rudd (Senior College Administrator) commented on the relationship and her experience with Zen Web Solutions to date:

“We’re really pleased with the website Zen Web Solutions have created for the College. They were a delight to work with, and created a website that’s in-keeping with the Rochdale Sixth Form College brand, looks great and is very functional and user-friendly.”