Email management specialist Mimecast has announced that it will be partnering with mobile service provider Telefónica O2 Ireland in order to bring cloud-based email management to Irish businesses. The partnership marks another milestone in Mimecast’s Partner Programme.

The partnership will allow Telefónica O2 Ireland to offer businesses cloud services for email security, continuity and archiving, progressing the telecommunications systems of Ireland.

A new report from Frost & Sullivan has predicted a sharp increase in cloud-based services in the next few years. According to the analysts at Frost & Sullivan, the recession has caused many companies to seek the cheaper benefits of cloud communications which could lead to an 80% increase in the market worth around £1.4 billion.

However, many businesses are still reticent when it comes to cloud-based services. Data security issues top the list of concerns with reliability coming a close second. With money being rather tight after the recession though, many businesses won’t have any choice but to turn to the cloud.

Nationwide is setting an example for all other companies in the carbon-emission stakes after just finishing the virtualisation of 500 servers. The venture is part of a drive to enhance disaster recovery and also save on space, energy and money. So far, Nationwide has estimated that the venture will save around £8 million as well as helping the environment. Well done Nationwide.

Orange has announced that its Business Services division will release around twelve new services for cloud computing over the next two years. This move follows the trend of other telecoms companies which have made the move to cloud-based services as they become more popular. Orange’s cloud computing service will include vertical services, security and infrastructure to name but a few. Orange will offer self-service and usage based pricing which should make the service popular amongst businesses!

Network equipment provider Cisco and internet infrastructure services supplier Savvis are to team up to provide private clouds for businesses. Cisco and Savvis have actually been collaborators since 2006 when they started jointly offering IT infrastructure solutions to businesses.

The new cloud-based service from Savvis and Cisco will utilise Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and a private clouds platform from Savvis and Cisco’s Unified Computing System. Utilising an MPLS next generation network, the two companies are hoping the cloud IT infrastructure services will prove to be popular.

A recent survey by Frost & Sullivan suggests that virtualisation will increase exponentially in the near future despite being in the early stages at the present time. Virtualisation is the one of the current hot services in the telecoms industry and it has been said that virtualisation will change the enterprise infrastructure, particularly in India. Interoperability with existing systems is a key criterion for enterprises aiming to migrate to virtualisation solutions and in India with virtualisation solutions becoming more affordable, we’re sure to see a huge increase soon.

IDC’s Storage System Research VP Benjamin Woo is of the opinion that despite the rise of intelligent data storage systems, many companies are left wanting in the data management stakes. As well as not making the best use of their data, says Woo, people are too tied to their equipment to consider changing it.

According to Woo, the two best bets for data storage, data management and security are cloud computing and virtualisation. Cloud computing, despite recent evidence suggesting that most IT professionals cannot accurately define it, is a cheap and effective way to store data. Virtualisation, though, allows data to be made accessible through different processes although most people have  trouble switching from a physical desktop to a virtual one. The key to good data management, according to Woo, is classifying data correctly and embracing the emerging technologies.

Cisco have joined forces with EMC and VMware to create the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) union. The VCE will aim to increase data centre virtualisation and private cloud infrastructures. By doing this the VCE will cut costs for companies while increasing efficiency through the IT infrastructure. The VCE will offer solutions for virtualisation, computing, storage, networking, security, and management and will try to streamline companies.

Many companies are now turning towards cloud-based call centres or ‘software as a service’ according to recent surveys. Cloud-based call centre solutions facilitate a virtual call centre so that you can literally work from any computer with a high-speed broadband connection.

Having a virtual call centre can have numerous benefits. They’re quick and easy, there are hardly any hardware requirements and little investment. Perhaps the most attractive feature of virtualisation or a cloud based call centre though, is the fact that disaster recovery or business continuity is a given. If all of your data storage is in the cloud and your workers can work from any computer, there is no reason for a break in business if disaster should strike!

Virtualisation is a bit like the 100-1 horse that wins the Grand National – you never see it coming. Although it has been around for quite a while, it seems that lately everything is about virtualisation. So much so, that even the huge beast that is Unified Communications is getting in on the act. What virtualisation does is allow you to consolidate applications and run them on a single virtual server, conserving energy, cutting costs and saving space – plus the benefits to the whole business continuity issue too. With virtualisation you end up with less servers which translates into a better bottom line.

There is a downside to virtualisation though. The virtual machine software layers consume a portion of the processing capacity for layer management. So large-scale applications dedicated processors will still be the choice for the primary services, though business continuity services may stand-by on virtual servers. There can be problems with latency and scalability which is why many companies are moving very slowly towards virtualisation.

Let’s keep in mind that like the 100-1 horse, attention is only now being paid to virtualisation. Unified Communication vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft and Avaya are sure to overcome the downsides to virtualisation. We are after all, just at the start line.