Claranet is a European Managed Services company with its roots in the UK. Established in 1996 as an Internet Services Provider (ISP), Claranet has undergone expansion through a combination of collaborative partnerships and acquisitions. It plans to continue this growth strategy through to 2020.
Claranet offers a range of services including cloud hosting, colocation services and managed hosting. It has been recognised in Gartners Magic Quadrant as a leader in Cloud-Enabled managed hosting for the last three years and is accredited to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which means that customers automatically comply with standards too. Claranet has also achieved ISO 27001:2013 for information security management systems and ISO 9001:2008 quality standards.
Features of Claranets services include short-term or flexible contract options, 24/7 access, 99.95% guaranteed availability and a range of flexible power options. Claranet also cater for smaller businesses by offering the option to rent half, quarter or full racks and a range of additional service options.
Location
Claranet operates 32 datacentres and 16 offices across six countries: the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Portugal and Spain. Its head office is based near Bloomsbury in London, with another office at Docklands and UK offices in Cheshire, Reading, Gloucester and Manchester.
In 2012, Claranet consolidated its data centre estate after buying Star Technology. It closed the oldest data centres in order to move customers to state of the art facilities. The five UK data centres are based at Global Switch 2, Telecity Harbour Exchange Square and Telecity Sovereign House in London Docklands, Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire and Manchester.
Energy
Claranet is committed to providing data centre facilities that carry green certifications. All of its data centres are powered with zero-carbon energy and partnered data centres such as Global Switch 2 and Telecity also operate policies that increase the use of green and recycled energy. That means powering and cooling are sustainable and impact minimally on the environment.
Funding/Business Model
Claranet plans to continue to grow its business both organically, by offering more products and increasing its customer base, and by continuing its current acquisition strategy. It has the clear goal of consolidation of the European managed services sector. In 2014 alone, Claranet bought French hosting company Grita, Netherlands based NovaData and Echiron, a Portuguese managed hosting firm. There have been two 2015 acquisitions to date disaster recovery specialist Techgate and LinuxIT.
Claranet has recently completed a refinancing plan with long-term backers to secure funds until at least 2020. Funding partners include RBS, ARES, ABRY and recently, Goldman Sachs Private Capital Team. The new financing agreements offer better terms and lower rates, thanks to the continued success of Claranets acquisition and growth strategy.
Claranet currently turns over £150 million annually and employs around 850 staff. The financial year end 2014 saw Claranet increasing revenue by 24% Europe wide.
Partners/Customers
Claranet is a member of the Microsoft Partnership Network and holds Gold Hosting competency. This top level partnership means that employees within Claranet have achieved a high level of expertise in specific Microsoft competencies and can pass that expertise and knowledge on to clients.
Claranet is also a premium partner of VMware, which offers virtualisation technologies and cloud infrastructure technologies. This enables Claranet to offer VMware technologies to clients, along with the support, expertise and price benefits that premier partnership brings.
Customers of Claranet include Airbus, Amnesty, Harvey Nichols and Norfolk Council. It has also provided secure solutions for Third Financial and Priory Group.
A growing, all-in-one solution
Claranets growth drive means more scope to get all of the capabilities and expertise that customers seek in one place. It seeks partnership and collaboration with industry leaders and technology providers in order to deliver best value and competency in core areas. It has achieved a number of awards, including 118 on The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 (and the only managed services provider) and the DCIS Managed Services Provider of the Year 2015.
Claranet is a well-established and growing company that puts its ability to support its customers in every area at the forefront of its goals. It welcomes both small and large businesses and will suit the kind of customers that value customised solutions and hands-on support.