LONDON — Sept. 28, 2011 — Microsoft and some of Europe’s leading hosting providers are launching a series of go-to-market campaigns aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) take advantage of cloud services. The joint campaigns — with hosters Rise (a division of Fasthosts), UKFast, Host Europe, STRATO, Argeweb and Doruknet — cover the U.K. and Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey and are designed to help businesses plan, build and deploy private and public cloud solutions based on Microsoft Hyper-V. The campaigns will run until December 2011.
The Microsoft partner campaigns will enable SMBs across Europe to trial cloud services and realize potential benefits of scalability and cost-efficiency — the two key reasons to adopt cloud services, according to the “Microsoft SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011.” The hosting providers will bring a range of additional cloud services from disaster recovery and backup, to storage, email hosting and virtualized technology to ensure that SMBs avoid the risks of moving to the cloud and can make informed decisions on which cloud services support their businesses most effectively.
Andrew Lund, EMEA Director, Business Services, Operator Channels, Microsoft said, “Small and medium-sized businesses need the support of their local hosting service providers — our research says that having a service provider with a local presence is critical to 22 percent of SMBs and considered useful by a further 57 percent. They can provide advice and support, as well as provide close, strong relationships, to help these companies take advantage of cloud services. We are working with our partners to remove many of the perceived risks of moving to the cloud. The campaigns that our partners are offering on a trial or low-cost basis are the perfect way for businesses to make decisions about how and when to get into the cloud.”
The campaigns address the two key issues that cause SMBs to postpone decisions to adopt cloud services: lack of knowledge about cloud services and access to a local service provider. According to research from Microsoft*, 74 percent of European SMBs plan to use at least one cloud service, with 42 percent expecting to be using paid-for cloud services within the next three years. However, of those that do not plan to, half (50 percent) say that they do not know enough about cloud services, while others are still skeptical of the risks: one in four (26 percent) have concerns that cloud services are still unproven and therefore too risky, and a slightly higher number (16 percent) believe that data is not secure in the cloud.
Recognizing that SMBs consume software in a variety of ways, Microsoft offers a range of options for hosting providers to go to market with new services targeting SMBs. More information on the Hyper-V campaigns can be found here. Partner information can be found below.
About the Hosting Partners
UKFast
is currently running a campaign that gives clients the opportunity to benefit from three months’ free hosting on MyCloudStackTM. New and exclusive to UKFast, MyCloudStack is the latest evolution in cloud technology — a dedicated cloud-in-a-box. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft, MyCloudStack offers the highest standards of protection available in a cloud.
Rise
, a division of Fasthosts, offers business customers key services such as Disaster Recovery, Online Backup Applications, Online Storage and Web Hosting and Email. Rise has been named Hosting Solutions Partner of the Year at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Awards and also won the Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Partner Award in 2011.
Doruknet
, the largest Turkish cloud hosting provider, is a specialist on Microsoft Hyper-V technology and is running a campaign that provides SMBs with a variety of services such as virtualized serves, email hosting and online backup.
Host Europe
, based in Germany and the U.K. (as WebFusion), has led the way in hosting services for more than 14 years. Today, its series range includes innovative products backed by comprehensive support and a cast-iron guarantee. Services include Web hosting, virtual private servers, dedicated servers as well as premium hosting packages and domain name registrations. Host Europe plans a new services launch with Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology in the next 90 days.
STRATO
, Europe’s second-largest Web hosting and Web application provider, offers online hard disks, all-in-one Web hosting packages, dedicated and virtual servers and hosted business software such as online shops. STRATO is launching a special offer in August.
Argeweb
is one of the largest hosting providers in the Netherlands.
* About the Research
The “Microsoft SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011” research report was launched in March 2011. It was designed and conducted in conjunction with Edge Strategies Inc. (http://www.edgestrategies.com). The research questioned 3,258 SMBs that employ up to 250 employees across 16 countries worldwide: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. A copy of the full research report is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/mar11/03-25SMBResearchPR.mspx.
