Bringing cloud services togetherA point of view

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O rganisations rarely achieve great things alone. They need partners. People with the specialist expertise to cut through complexity. People who can make confusing options make sense. People with the experience to head off uncertainty. It’s just the same with networked IT.

And today the need for that kind of partner is even greater. That’s because the key to keeping up with a fast-changing world is being connected. Connected to colleagues, customers and suppliers, and connected to information. All in real time. And increasingly, the key to doing that successfully and cost-effectively is networked IT from the cloud.

The cloud is full of possibilities, but it’s a fast-moving, fast-changing ecosystem. And we believe the organisations that really take advantage will need a certain kind of partner. One that can help them plot a long-term strategy and bring together the right blend of infrastructure, services and know-how to realise it. A partner that offers them all the possibilities and keeps them in control. A partner that makes it easier to move to the cloud and explore it.

In short, a cloud service integrator.

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Bringing cloud services together - a point of view

Every organisation knows about the benefits of the cloud – more flexibility, less cost; more computing capacity, applications and services available on demand, less capital tied up in maintenance-hungry systems on the premises. By next year, most of the money organisations spend on IT will be in the cloud.

But are they making the most of the potential? Research suggests not. While six out of ten think the cloud can help them deal with their challenges, nearly seven out of ten are proceeding with caution: tactical projects rather than transformation.

Why? While the benefits are tempting, the concerns are pressing. How secure will their data be? Will they still comply with regulations once it’s in the cloud? Will their applications perform well enough? How will they manage the suppliers bringing them the multiple clouds many say they’ll be using in the next few years?

CIOs can be the lynchpin of transformation. But they and their teams can’t do it all. A third say they lack the skills to migrate work to the cloud and a similar proportion worry about the disruption they could face when they do migrate.

Understandable, then, that nine out of ten organisations want suppliers that can manage data centres and networks together.

But we think they need more.

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Connecting more simply and reliably, for less

When Paul Chong took over as Group IT and Commercial Director at Standard Life he took on a creaking network of different data and voice technologies. We helped him move 17 different network services to BT, a process that would normally take three and a half years, but which we pulled off in just seven months. A single worldwide WAN carries voice and data for over 9,000 users, and Paul will be able to upgrade easily. Mid-project, Standard Life also took the chance to grow in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and we provided the infrastructure in six weeks with BT Cloud Contact. Standard Life’s costs are down 25 per cent and they’ll save £15m over five years

Why a partner?

Bringing cloud services together - a point of view

The cloud is creating choices where they didn’t exist before. The key to success is understanding those choices, so organisations take control. With that understanding comes confidence and the ability to harness change and do things that matter: get to market and innovate faster, keep costs down, and keep customers happy.

These are exactly the things the cloud makes possible. And this is where a partner that can bring services together is so important. Of course, technology matters, but it’s service that makes the difference by helping organisations make sense of their choices.

Choice starts with a network. A stable, scalable and secure network is the basis of IT that can evolve with organisations and help them achieve their aims, instead of getting in the way. IT that can put them in control of their own transformation.

Our network extends to 198 countries and territories, with 4,700 points of presence. Our customers connect to it to run their operations around the world, from collaborating with each other on video conferencing and managing manufacturing plants to exchanging sensitive data with R&D partners. Because we own and manage the network, we can control performance and security for our customers too.

We’ve put our local data centres close to where our customers are instead of in low-cost locations. So when they entrust their data to us, it stays were they need it to. And they get the performance they and their customers expect.

We’re not standing still. We’re among the leaders on technologies like Network functions Virtualisation and Software Defined Networking that will make our network even easier to connect to and services easier to order and use.

Choice is about flexibility. Organisations shouldn’t have to decide which vendor’s technology they’ll be locked in to, if that decision curbs their ambitions later. They need access to systems they’re already using, as well as being able to switch on new independent apps in a moment. They should have the option to run private and public clouds together and blend their own data centres with cloud-enabled ones, and be sure everything will run seamlessly together. And moving to the cloud shouldn’t have to be a dramatic throw of the on-off lever. Organisations should be able to do what they want at the pace that’s right for their aims and strategy.

We make that flexibility possible, from how to connect to the cloud, to where applications run from. And with our Compute Management System we put organisations in control. Through it they can see all their resources as a

Making the right choices

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Connected public services doing more for less

Paul Brocklehurst, CIO at Surrey County Council, saw a chance to help deliver better public services for less cost by boosting collaboration and cutting out duplication. The high-speed, Public Services Network-certified UniCORN infrastructure the county shares with neighbouring Berkshire promises to do just that.

It unites 20 agencies like healthcare and education across 1,800 sites, replacing 40 separate networks. Our Ethernet Connect platform is at the heart of it all, and we integrate services including a WAN, internet, voice and contact centres. Surrey community health services is cutting network costs by 25 per cent and the 205 county schools on UniCORN have doubled their network power for a third of the cost.

NETWORK FLEXIBILITY RELATIONSHIPS KNOW-HOW SECURITY SERVICE

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virtual data centre and manage their IT, applications and data. They can get new infrastructure up and running in minutes, deploy and manage applications and get cloud-based file storage, data protection and sharing services and more.

Choice is about relationships. Organisations know different clouds can do different jobs. We connect to most of the major third-party cloud suppliers – and the connections are private, so performance and security never suffer. It means we can offer the kind of cloud services that could bring competitive advantage.

Choice is about know-how. One cloud doesn’t fit all. Different sectors need different things. So Organisations should have access to consultants with specialist knowledge. We work with some of the world’s biggest organisations and it’s given us a depth of experience we can apply to different industries, from financial services and automotive to life sciences and retail.

Choice is about security. Because any IT system you choose is only as good as the security protecting it. Security is built in to our network and we police it with our 2,000-strong team of experts. Security risks are a fact of life, but with the right people and processes you can keep them under control, manage them and see them coming. We’ve done that successfully for NATO, the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the UK Ministry of Defence among others. And choice is about service. A real cloud service integrator brings all these capabilities together. They manage the whole journey from network to cloud, they manage third parties, they manage performance and security and they simplify pricing. And they replace a bundle of SLAs with just one. That’s the vision we’re offering businesses and public sector bodies.

Making a cloud-enabled economy happenWe want to make the cloud-enabled economy a reality. Our vision is to do that by putting organisations in control of their choices in the cloud, and turning their uncertainties into confidence. They should be able to get the benefits no matter what their current IT looks like.

Making that happen means being the new kind of partner they need to help them reach their goals, step by step. Every organisation wants to push the boundaries, and they’re more likely to do that with a partner that’s capable of pushing boundaries too. It’s something we’re used to, from establishing ourselves as the first telecoms company in 1846 to launching the first always-on GPRS mobile network in 1999 and ruffling feathers in the TV market with BT Sport in 2013.

Bringing cloud services together - a point of view

Now we’re carrying on that tradition by opening up all the cloud has to offer. We have the network, the infrastructure, the relationships and the know-how to put the possibilities in reach and keep organisations in control. So that wherever they are in their evolution, we can put them on the road to achieving great things.