Having identified a gap in the market for providing cloud solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, Jonathan Browne established MyCloud, a fully Irish owned company and subsidiary of Gemini Technology that began developing an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution.

Run on an HP platform, the company looked to host business critical applications in the cloud. The missing piece was a hosting partner. Every cloud service is dependent on robust and resilient infrastructure, run from a data centre with best-in-class security and connectivity. With a revenue model based around business critical cloud services, the need to find the right data centre partner was paramount.

A good experience with BT as a network operator was a starting point, but what really persuaded Browne that he had found his partner was a guided tour of the Citywest data centre in south Dublin.

BT put me at ease straight away, not just in terms of what they can deliver for us technically but also in the way they work on a relationship basis. We’d invested a lot in our infrastructure and needed to be comfortable that we had the right host.”

Jonathan Browne, Managing Director, MyCloud

Jonathan Browne was also impressed by the roll-call of big name Irish organisations that have been long-term residents in BT’s Citywest data centre. BT was also competitive on price, but more importantly was able to deliver all the requirements around maintaining a scalable, high-performing environment that is both efficient and secure. The main driver, however, was BT’s approach to client relationships, which gave Browne the level of service he was looking for.

Paul Donegan, Account Manager at BT, believes the partnership approach is a unique selling point:

We treat our clients as an extension of our own operations. It all comes down to service, so if MyCloud has an issue they know that BT will react quickly.”

MyCloud invested in close to €2m worth of infrastructure located in BT Citywest, giving their customers access to best-in-class enterprise cloud infrastructure.

Run out of the 183,000 sq. ft. facility, BT’s Data Centre Services leverage carrier neutral connectivity with over 25 different network providers and over 40 Gb/s of meshed IP connectivity. With ISO20000, ISO27001 and ITIL service management accreditations, it guarantees best-practice regulatory compliance. BT has also driven down the cost of power to deliver savings in an increasingly competitive market, as well as enhance the green credentials of the facility.

Unique to the Dublin site is the two-in-one design, where Block A and Block B are run as independent yet connected entities to support a full-proof disaster recovery plan. BT’s fibre network links two identical sets of racks giving MyCloud synchronous replication and a guaranteed service.

You could do it with other data centres but you’d end up with multiple vendors and multiple points of failure. The BT configuration avoids the problem”

Jonathan Browne, Managing Director, MyCloud

BT’s partnership approach included introductions to best-of-breed providers that also proved invaluable to MyCloud. Having made a significant investment in security appliances from Palo Alto Networks, on BT’s recommendation, virtually managed firewalls are now part of its enriched cloud offering.

There is a reputation around the BT brand when it comes to delivering ICT solutions that works to our advantage. It’s very exciting in terms of how we can talk to our customers and grow our business.”

Jonathan Browne, Managing Director, MyCloud

The immediate benefits of working with BT became apparent as MyCloud prepared to launch. The first customers were in place and expecting to “go live” on a very tight deadline. BT had the racks and power sorted within fours day and within two weeks MyCloud had its first payload up and running. “Provisioning a private cloud environment from scratch within days is unheard of,” said Browne. “Nothing ever seemed to be a problem for BT.”

MyCloud is now a thriving business, offering on-demand services at the cutting edge of IT delivery.

Being able access BT’s expertise freed up our resources to go out and build a marketplace. Whether it’s their people in the NOC [Network Operations Centre] or the BT security advisors, they act like an extension of our team.”

Jonathan Browne, Managing Director, MyCloud

BT is the exact opposite of the “turn-on, walk away” engagements he has experienced with other service providers. Aside from the short-term benefits of helping at launch, Browne expects to leverage BT’s global footprint to further accelerate his business in the future. BT has 45 data centres around the world, enabling MyCloud to take customers closer to overseas markets and avoid latency issues that can hamper cloud delivery.

The value of the BT partnership has helped MyCloud in a number of ways. Firstly, it’s a powerful global brand to be associated with and has given a new entrant instant credibility. “Thanks to our hard work and the help of BT our cloud offering is able to compete with any other provider,” said Browne.

Secondly, there’s a huge amount of knowledge and expertise that can be leveraged.  

We ask BT for advice and they bring their expertise to the table. They provide an ongoing consultative approach to help us improve on our product offering.”

Jonathan Browne, Managing Director, MyCloud

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