Make the right choice

Ask the right questions.

Viruses, data theft, data corruption and other types of cyber attacks are rapidly on the increase. It is critical that your Cloud provider has multiple layers of protection in place for your data and your software applications. As standard, this should include a defined multi-layer anti-virus strategy and intelligent intrusion detection and prevention systems. In addition, for back up measures, the provider should be able to replicate data to a secondary location and also back this up to portable storage media, using a defined back-up strategy.

Intercept Answer: Intercept utilises a complex threat protection strategy to ensure our Customer data remains safe. We have five layers of anti-virus protection and Enterprise standard intrusion detection and prevention systems. Client data can be replicated in near real-time to our secondary data centre to ensure Business Continuity in the event of a disaster and as a final fail-safe, data is backed up onto tape using the industry standard GFS rotation system and stored off site in a secure storage facility.

Q7. Is email SPAM catered for and can settings be customised?

SPAM is undoubtedly one of the biggest issues in the email World today. On average, over 70% of all email sent to business users is considered SPAM, potentially creating huge productivity losses. You Cloud provider should have configurable SPAM filters and be able to filter out a large majority of SPAM before it ever hits a users inbox.

Intercept Answer: Intercept utilises an industry leading SPAM filtration system, which can be self-configured by each user. This gives complete control to the user, whilst ensuring that any potential virus content remains quarantined.

Q8. Are guarantees provided in the event of the Cloud service not being accessible?

Reputable providers should be prepared to offer guarantees around the availability of Cloud services, preferably via a defined Service Level Agreement (SLA). As a Customer, you should expect financial penalties to kick in if your service suffers less than 99% availability. And a word to the wise here; it is literally impossible to provide 100% availability, so beware of any provider who makes such claims.

Intercept Answer: Being the first UK provider of a full desktop Cloud service, Intercept was the pioneer of penalty based Service Level Agreements. We have always provided service credits for any “down-time” of over 15 minutes and we continue to provide the strictest SLA in the industry. Our position on this is quite simple, if a provider has designed a truly resilient service, there is absolutely no reason they should not be prepared to offer guarantees against failure. If only we could get other industries to follow our lead!!!

Q9. If I choose a Cloud service, can my business still utilise the same software applications it has today? And what happens when upgrades are required?

Software licensing can be a complex and expensive business and it is therefore important that Cloud providers offer absolute flexibility in this area. Experienced providers should be able to allow Customers to utilise existing software application licenses, reducing their monthly charges proportionately for any licenses already owned.  Many providers insist that businesses use their pre-defined application set, which can cause untold issues relating user training, data incompatibility, etc. In addition, the best Cloud providers have special arrangements directly with Microsoft, enabling the monthly rental of all required Microsoft licensing. A defined number of upgrades to both Microsoft and other bespoke software applications should be included within the cost of Cloud services.

Intercept Answer: Intercept provides as much application software licensing as is required and key to this is keeping our Cloud services cost effective to our clients as possible. As a result, any existing software licenses which have been purchased by our clients can be utilised from day one, to ensure that no money are wasted. In short, our Cloud platform has been designed to be application independent. However, Intercept does also have an agreement with Microsoft, where our Customers can rent all required Microsoft licensing on a monthly basis and this allows us to incorporate these charges into our monthly billing model. Upgrades to all Microsoft applications using this model are included within our Cloud services. Bespoke applications also benefit from one free upgrade each year, although clients may still be required to purchase upgrade licenses depending on the individual software vendors licensing model.

Q10. How much training is required in order to be able to utilise Cloud services?

There are such a variety of Cloud solutions already available, that this question is a difficult question to answer. Providers who are offering their own specific applications will undoubtedly require customers to undertake training. By contrast, providers of truly flexible Cloud offerings should be able to deliver services with little to no training at all, as they will be delivering the same set of software applications the Customer is used to working with.

Intercept Answer: Intercept has always believed that the principle of Cloud computing is to keep things simple. For example, our preferred approach to complete desktop solutions is to take the software the Customer uses today and make it perform better, improve the availability of access and in short, improve user productivity. The only training needed is for users to be able to login and this takes about 5 minutes! Once the service is running and the business is comfortable, we can then look at areas where improvements can be made, including the use of new applications and services.



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