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February 12, 2010
• Vol.32 Issue 4
Page(s) 39 in print issue
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Bringing Cloud To The Masses
NaviSite’s Hosted Services Give SMEs Large-Enterprise Functionality At Small-Enterprise Prices
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 Until fairly recently, most IT departments had to oversee most anything that had to do with their networks. Then, over the past half-decade or so, services began to sprout up that allowed data center managers to outsource certain processes, such as email messaging, data archiving, and network security, to vendors that specialized in these areas.
This trend is leading to what’s known as “utility computing,” in which data centers can purchase computing resources in the same way they currently buy electricity and other utilities. Andover, Mass.,-based NaviSite (www.navisite.com) is in the forefront of this revolution. “Without a doubt, the single biggest thing in our future and the industry in general is utility computing,” says NaviSite CTO Denis Martin. “It’s going to change how the computing industry provides services to end customers.”
 Saving Money Through IT Outsourcing
Martin says NaviSite’s primary purpose is to provide IT outsourcing services to organizations that want to focus on their core operations. “We provide a value proposition that we’ll perform it faster, better, and [for] 30 to 40% [less] than what it would cost to do it in-house,” Martin explains.
NaviSite works with companies of all sizes, but it’s particularly focused on the SME segment because typically companies of this size need the same IT functionalities that large enterprises need yet usually lack the financial and human resources to implement and manage such complex systems.
Martin uses Microsoft Exchange as an example of what NaviSite can offer its customers. "If your business isn't running Exchange, you should focus on your business and let us run Exchange because we can do so at a better level of service for a lower price,” Martin says. “Managed applications [are] one of the core things that we do.”
The Advantages Of Focusing On Multiple Areas
NaviSite offers three primary services, each of which covers a wide area. Its application hosting services allow enterprises to offload running core business applications, such as those by Oracle, PeopleSoft, Kronos, and Microsoft Dynamics, in addition to other standard and custom software. Its enterprise hosting solutions offer a range of services, including content delivery, colocation options, and managed hosting of various aspects of IT infrastructure. And its messaging application outsourcing services comprise hosted Microsoft Exchange migration and management as well as hosted SharePoint, Lotus Domino, BlackBerry, GoodLink, and other mobile solutions.
Because NaviSite offers so many services, it’s reasonable to ask whether it can perform these processes as well as vendors that focus specifically on single areas such as security, disaster recovery, backup, or colocation. Martin admits it’s a question NaviSite gets with some frequency. “When we built our business as it exists today, we all knew we could leverage fixed-cost infrastructure very well, and so we have a fixed-cost infrastructure of 13 data centers in the U.S. and two in the UK that we think of as our operating platform,” he says. “And all [of our services] operate on the same infrastructure and operating platform.”
By offering so many different, albeit complementary, services, NaviSite reduces the number of vendors data center managers need to work with. “It’s part of our value proposition. When we demonstrate our competency in messaging, we can then say, ‘You run PeopleSoft Financials? We can run that for you,’ and show them our experience and the cost savings in running it,” says Martin. “We build tight relationships with our customers and get more embedded in being their IT outsourcing partner and can provide even more services more effectively since we understand their infrastructure.”
Treating Messaging Like Payroll
According to Martin, messaging services are an indicator of the movement toward utility computing. “Messaging has become a core requirement for doing business today, yet it’s not a core competency for most businesses,” he says. “This is vastly different today than even two years ago, where now it’s a mature market where people need to find the fastest, cheapest, most reliable option.”
In other words, messaging services are following the same route as payroll has for enterprises. “Very few companies think about printing or distributing their own paychecks today. They’re [now] doing it through . . . some other company, and messaging is rapidly growing into that category,” Martin says. “And for just about anything like that, you start thinking, ‘If I [use a service] for my paycheck processing or email messaging, should I consider doing my financials the same way?”
Cloud Computing & The Future
NaviSite’s latest venture is its NaviCloud MCS (Managed Cloud Services) portfolio, which offers users self-provisioned, scalable cloud IT infrastructure services with a pricing structure that is based on usage. NaviCloud MCS provides users with a secure virtualized infrastructure hosted on NaviSite’s SAS 70 Type II-compliant data centers.
In addition, NaviCloud MCS uses enterprise-grade technologies in its function and delivers a host of configurations—from self-managed sandboxes that users can leverage as testing environments without having to tax their own data center resources to fully managed and monitored production environments for mission-critical applications, complete with managed security and disaster recovery services and guaranteed application SLAs.
“The term ‘cloud’ can be an ambiguous and confusing one, but for us it means utility computing. The ability to buy computing resources the way you’d buy natural gas or electricity is here,” Martin says. “It’s a big shift in the underlying infrastructure that is used to provide the services that we have provided up to this point.”
According to Martin, NaviCloud MCS will give its users the same services NaviSite has traditionally offered at an even greater savings than it has offered up to this point. In other words, it will take another 30 to 40% off the amount that they were already saving by leveraging NaviSite for infrastructure, application, and messaging needs. “The services we offer now are going to be even more compelling because they will be even cheaper and more reliable due to the cloud infrastructure it has been built on,” says Martin. “This is the strategy our company is basing its future on.” 
by Robyn Weisman
NaviSite
(877) 485-9251
www.navisite.com
• NaviSite provides affordable enterprise-class hosted services to smaller companies that may not otherwise be able to afford the functionality.
• The company offers application hosting services, enterprise hosting solutions, and messaging application outsourcing services as well as a cloud-based IT infrastructure called NaviCloud.
• “We build tight relationships with our customers and . . . can provide even more services more effectively since we understand their infrastructure,” says NaviSite CTO Denis Martin. |
NaviSite Featured Products
| Product | Description | | NaviCloud | Highly available and scalable cloud-based IT infrastructure that provides seamless integration between cloud infrastructure and dedicated equipment and offers an economical pay-for-use billing model. | | NaviSite Application Services | Full range of application hosting services that allows organizations to outsource commonly used business applications such as Oracle, Lawson, Kronos, and Microsoft Dynamics as well as custom business solutions. | | NaviSite Customized Messaging Solutions | Consulting, hosting, and management services for Microsoft Exchange solutions, mobile messaging solutions for BlackBerry and other smartphones, and email archiving. | | NaviSite Enterprise Hosting Services | Wide selection of enterprise hosting services, including colocation services, content delivery services, enterprise Web hosting, database management, server and storage management, and network security management. | |
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