Easynet is a multi-country provider of managed services. It promotes its data centre provision as enabling companies to outsource their IT infrastructure, without having to compromise on security or reliability. Its facilities are enterprise-grade, and all have built-in redundancy and resilience, as well as efficiency. The quality and security are demonstrated by ISO27001 and ISO9001 certifications.
It offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS), with state-of-the-art technology, top level security, including full CCTV and monitored access to site, and good connectivity and availability. Easynet is also selling companies the option to expand their data processing capability quickly and easilypaying for the space that they use. Its very much data centre provision made easy.
For customers that want to retain control, but need more space or connectivity than their office provides, colocation services may be the answer. Easynet manages a large number of colocation services around the world, sorting all the air conditioning, fire prevention, security and resilience, as well as reliable connectivity.
Location
Easynet owns five data centres of its own, in Nanterre, France, Milan, Italy, Schipol-Rijk, in the Netherlands, and in the UK, Bracknell and Brick Lane, in East London. It is a tenant of another eight data centres across western Europe, in Belgium, France, Spain and several in the UK around London and along the M4 corridor. It also works with partners around the world to be able to deliver colocation services on a global basis.
Energy
Easynet is clear that it takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. All its data centres use energy-efficient liquid-cooled air conditioning systems. That said, much of what it has published on environmental issues is very vague: reading between the lines, one might infer that so far, not much has really been done, but the company knows that environmental sustainability is becoming an essential in the data centre business.
Funding/Business Model
Easynet was acquired in 2013 by MDNX, an independent integrator in the UK. MDNX provides critical managed networks and cloud infrastructure to hosting services and directly to public sector and corporates in the UK. The two companies together offer a broad span of IT infrastructure options, and value the impartiality and flexibility of not being tied to any particular provider, supplier or carrier. This means that they can provide, and can help their partners to provide, the ideal solutions for their customers.
Partners/customers
The big advantage that Easynet claims to offer its partners is a robust product portfolio, combined with a simple online self-service dashboard, backed by comprehensive support infrastructure. Its a package that offers a beguiling mix of good and broad product options with high quality support if you need it. Easynets flexibility and independence means that it is free to offer the technology and infrastructure that best fits each customers situation for both hosting companies and direct customers.
It also offers a performance support tool called Matrix, which provides total transparency of customer inventory, billing and real-time service performance. It allows providers to view quotes, track orders and keep an eye on service requests, as well as having access to management tools that allow customers to change services themselves. Providers can also see the overall performance of the network, and the rate of consumption of cloud services. This kind of total transparency is almost unprecedented, and one of the big selling points of Easynets services.
Easynets customers come from both public and private sector. It is clearly highly committed to the public sector, recognising the need to meet particular standards to operate, and also part of the Public Services Network, and the UK governments G-cloud programme.
Selling peace of mind and flexibility
Easynets focus, as you might expect from its name, is to make its customers lives easier. It sells on the basis that using its services, and particularly its data centres and colocation services, takes the trouble out of IT infrastructure for customers. Yes, its ticking the boxes for updating technology, but the real focus is on how easy it is for customers to upgrade in terms of adding processing capability, or updating the infrastructure more generally.
The security and reliability, though mentioned and clearly important, are almost of course. Easynet has recognised that its customers need these elements, but really what they need to know is that Easynet has them under control, and they can rely on the company to deliver reliable, secure systems. And it seems to work: both public and private sector organisations seem to welcome this practical and easy approach.