CodeBlue first with affordable
Cloud computing service

CodeBlue has launched an affordable, secure, enterprise-class Cloud computing service New Zealand businesses, with high-availability servers starting at just $200 per month.

CodeBlue’s General Manager Ian Funnell says this competitive price point means CodeBlue’s Cloud servers cost around the same to implement as traditional in-house servers – but cost less to service and support. CodeBlue’s Cloud servers also provide significant benefits – such as high availability (we guarantee 99.99 percent availability), automated backup and disaster recovery, and the flexibility to ‘dial up or dial down’ server capacity according to demand.

Funnell says while there is much hype around Cloud computing, savvy business owners have been waiting until there’s a strong and obvious business case for moving to locate their servers in the Cloud instead of on their own premises.

“CodeBlue’s Cloud service is the first to offer secure, high-availability Cloud computing at an entry price point directly comparable to on-premises servers,” he says.  “This has never been done before. It provides a powerful incentive for customers to now adopt the new Cloud computing model, knowing they will reap not only service and support savings, but also major service improvement benefits.”

The CodeBlue Cloud service is ideal for both small- and medium-sized businesses. Cloud services are often complementary to existing on-premises servers – CodeBlue helps customers decide which servers to keep internally, and which to operate in the Cloud to get the right mix for their business.

“Our approach is to find the most cost effective and pragmatic strategy for customers. This typically involves using existing on-premises servers for local file and print and running standard Microsoft Office applications. Higher demand applications such as accounting software, ERP systems, sales and service systems, CRMs and Intranets are all candidates for application servers running in the Cloud,” says Ian Funnell.

Funnell says CodeBlue is unique in not having a vested interest in either Cloud or in-house solutions. “We’re agnostic. We’re interested in the lowest realistic costs and highest service levels for our customers – and we’ll use whatever technology we can to help customers achieve that objective.”

He says a major advantage of Cloud computing for small- to medium-sized businesses is that it makes highly sophisticated technology affordable.  For example, CodeBlue’s Cloud servers are fully virtualised using VMware at an enterprise level. This means 99.99 percent availability. If a server goes down, another server automatically takes over without the user noticing any change. CodeBlue prices Service Level Agreements lower for virtualised servers, whether it’s in the Cloud or on premises.

“There are hard, quantifiable savings from adopting virtualised servers,” Ian Funnell says. “The Cloud allows businesses to benefit from these savings – without the expense of implementing a virtualised server environment internally.”

The Cloud also enables Backup and Disaster Recovery to be handled automatically at much lower cost than with internal systems. Another big advantage is that if customers require more server capacity for periods of peak load they can simply ‘dial it up’ on a ‘pay-as-you-use’ basis. This means customers don’t have to buy server capacity for peak demand which then is underutilised at non-peak periods.

“For us Cloud computing is just a means to an end. CodeBlue’s success is based on our promise to customers that we will reduce their overall IT service costs while at the same time improving services levels – all for a fixed monthly cost.”

“As technology moves ahead we’re continually finding new ways to achieve our customer promise and Cloud computing is an important new tool in our customer value delivery process,” Funnell says.