Telstra has detailed its new Cloud Services portal, designed to make virtual servers more available and affordable to small business.
Telstra Business Group managing director Will Irving said the online ordering service’s pricing and functionality is aimed at driving cloud take-up and productivity in Australia’s huge base of SMEs.
“Telstra’s multi-million dollar investment in cloud services is money businesses themselves don’t need to invest upfront on IT, so they can put it to good use elsewhere to help them grow. Because it provides computing resources on demand, businesses no longer need to own a physical server and can just rent space as they require it.”
Irving said independent modelling has shown an SME using the service could save up to $7000 a year over three years. Telstra’s Cloud Services are available in five packages ranging from $200 to $4000 a month, on a pay-as-you-go basis with minimal or no up-front costs or fixed contract term.
The ability to order online will appeal to small business customers, Irving said, especially those seeking to rapidly deploy virtual environments for a variety of uses including testing, development or short-term projects.
Customers will be able to self-purchase and manage virtual servers via the platform or go to the cloud with help from a growing network of channel partners.
Telstra Cloud Services in action at LaManna
A business making use of Telstra’s cloud services is the LaManna Group, which is one of the country’s largest wholesalers of fruit and vegetables.
Six months ago, the New Zealand-owned business had its data stored on its parent company’s servers across the Tasman. A decision to move much of the New Zealand company’s server capacity to Auckland in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake was a driver for change in the local business, as was the cost of maintaining a dedicated trans-Tasman data line.
“We needed a data platform that not only suited our current needs but also set us up for the future,” CEO Bernard Treacy said.
Doing away with its trans-Tasman data line immediately saved LaManna $6000 a year. According to IT manager Iain Higgins, the business never seriously considered buying on-premise servers that would have involved outlays of “tens of thousands of dollars”.
“Data speeds are much faster and our ERP runs much more smoothly using Cloud Services virtual hosting,” he said.
“Our virtual servers are continuously monitored and if there’s ever a capacity issue they are seamlessly moved to different hardware, ensuring consistent high performance. This coupled with the disaster prevention measures that come with a large corporation like Telstra made the service very attractive.”
