In March, we ran our Partner Roadshow with events held in an awesome trio of venues in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.  This was an opportunity for us to meet with  Partners, update them on what we’ve been doing over the last year, brief them about what we have planned in the year ahead and get valuable input and feedback from them.  The title for our Partner Roadshow was “Thriving not just surviving in turbulent times” as it was focused around major changes happening in the ICT industry.  This includes the emergence of technologies like NBN, 5G and SD-WAN, challenges finding critical resources required for transition and growth, and other major trends that Partners are being confronted with in these turbulent times.

Speakers from Cloud Plus, Juniper Networks, Western Digital and Insentra gave excellent presentations on the changes that are occuring and how partners can leverage these changes to best advantage, rather than seeing them simply as a risk or challenge to their business.  Across a wide range of topics the speakers explained how partners can pivot and grow.  You can download their presentatsions here – *CloudPlus*, *Insentra*, *Juniper Networks* and *Western Digital.*

Cam Wayland (Channel Dynamics) and Simon Sharwood (CRN Australia) were entertaining and engaging in their role as MC and panel hosts.  Both provided unique insights into the challenges that partners in the ICT channel are facing at present.

Of course these events would not have been such a great success if it handn’t been for all the partners and prospective partners that attended.  Thank you for joining us, providing valuable feedback and sharing your thoughts candidly over a few drinks.  We are here to support the channel and we are listening.  Cloud Plus aims to be the partner of choice for the ICT channel as you adapt and excel!

Since we set up our office in Manila a number of years back many of our partners have asked us about our experience with this and have wanted to discuss the challenges they’re having with securing staff in Australia to help fuel the needs of their business. So much so that ultimately, we decided to set up our own BPO practice there so that we could provide them with easy access to staff in Manila rather than just talking about it.

As we’re 100% channel focused, we felt that an offering like this would enable us to help our partners maintain and grow their businesses more effectively. Indeed, BPO services seemed to be a powerful addition to our Solution Framework.

So, without further ado, we’re excited to officially announce the launch of ‘Staff Plus’ – tailored staffing solutions designed to meet the business requirements of our partners.

Here’s what you can expect with Staff Plus:

An Australian owned and operated solution

Savings of well over 50% vs what you might expect in Australia

Rapid and streamlined recruitment of staff with no placement fees

Enthusiastic and highly skilled staff covering a wide range of business functions

Clear, transparent pricing (flat monthly AUD fee with no hidden costs)

Staff located in a similar time zone and in close proximity to Australia

The ability to visit and work with your staff in Manila as required

Local management oversight

Staff Plus takes all the headaches out of hiring staff in Manila and makes it simple. We take point on recruitment and provide office space, tools of trade, Internet access etc as part of the service. And our partners don’t have to stress about local labour laws, regulations and taxes as we take care of that. We also provide local management oversight to ensure that everything is going smoothly.

However most importantly, the quality of our offices, the facilities we provide and the culture we foster is in keeping with what our partners have in Australia so the staff we provide are a natural extension of their business.

“The trusted engagement with Cloud Plus has been professional from the start. From the initial sourcing of candidates, through the interview and placement process, and further supported by ongoing human talent management, our partnership with Cloud Plus continues to grow from strength to strength.” Matt Kaplan, Head of Managed Services.

We are also constantly looking for ways to improve our offering not just for partners, but for our BPO staff as well. We have leased additional space in our building specifically for BPO staff and we’re already talking to building management about additional space for expansion following our recent influx of staff.

We’ve also signed the lease for a gym space and will start fitting this out shortly. The gym will be available to both Cloud Plus and BPO staff. As it’s within the building, they can use the gym before/after work or during breaks regardless of their shift roster, without unnecessary travel time or safety concerns associated with using an external gym. There is no doubt this will be a major draw-card for BPO staff and will help with attracting and retaining good talent.

For more information on how Staff Plus tailored staffing solutions can help you scale your business, improve profitability and increase workforce flexibility, download our Staff Plus brochure, and contact us if you are interested in finding out more!

Name: Steve Jones

Location: Illawarra region of NSW

1. What is your role at Cloud Plus?

Network Engineering Manager but still very much enjoying being “hands on” technically as well.

2. How long have you been in that role?

Since the early days of Cloud Plus, over 7 years now.

3. How did you get into the ICT industry?

In the mid 90’s while working as an Auto Electrician I was looking for a new challenge and this Internet thing looked kind of interesting. My first job was as a Trainee Computer Operator at the Sydney Futures Exchange. Over 20 years later and here I am.

4. What do you enjoy most about the ICT industry?

New technologies are emerging constantly and there is always something new to learn and some very talented people to learn from.

5. What did you do before Cloud Plus?

I worked as an IP Network Engineer specialising in BRAS and MPLS VPN for a large ISP. I have worked in the corporate world however do really enjoy the service provider space.

6. What’s the best thing about working at Cloud Plus?

Working with the great Cloud Plus team and especially the Network Engineering Team. Everyone at Cloud Plus works well together to scope, design and then deliver solutions for partners and clients.

7. What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I enjoy spending time with the family, pottering about in the garden/workshop and riding my motorcycle (but not nearly enough).

8. What is the first music tape/CD/record you ever purchased?

London Calling by The Clash.

9. Best holiday destination?

Anywhere with the family is fantastic but camping somewhere by a quiet river is something special.

10. Favourite movie?

Heathers.

11. Looking to the future….In five years I will be

Sitting on a beach earning 20%…but more likely still learning more about firewalls and routers and switches and SD-WAN.

See the rest of our team HERE

Ensuring we provide the best quality physical and virtual IT infrastructure for you and your clients is paramount to us here at Cloud Plus. Our integrated cloud solutions are designed to give you all you need in your digital endeavours. To deliver you the best possible results, it’s vital we continuously upskill our people and stay ahead of trends and changes in the digital world.

Earlier this year, we attended renowned cyber security conference AusCERT. It added to our arsenal of knowledge to help you stay fully protected – and when it comes to learning, we didn’t stop there.

AusNOG 2018 conference

The primary technical conference for network operators in Australia, the AusNOG annual conference has been a sought-after education event since 2007. It’s attended by the country’s top network engineers and is far from a sales conference. There are no marketing presentations even allowed! AusNOG is open to network operators of all different skill levels. It allows conference attendees to share experiences and knowledge through networking and peer to peer support and learning to help improve the future of the IT sector.

Where better to keep in contact with peers and colleagues to share learnings and insights so we can deliver those benefits to you and your clients?

Our team has taken what they learned at AusNOG. We’ve reflected on our progress and look forward to new and innovative approaches. Attending AusNOG helps our team stay knowledgeable and skilled in issues affecting our solutions suite across data, security, hosting, backup and DR, and voice technologies.

In a field that’s changing as much as the digital one, it’s necessary to be continually learning and adapting.

We keep up-to-date, so you don’t have to.

Staying at the cutting edge of cloud technologies and other network innovations is a full-time job. Our commitment to being the best, including attending industry-leading conferences such as AusNOG, means we are well equipped and up-to-date with the ins and outs of network, security and cloud services.

The overarching theme of the major presentations revolved around achieving rapid growth through automated service provisioning and the significant investment in time and effort required to achieve gains at scale. Technologies like IPv6, Network Telemetry, Segment Routing, VXLAN,  EVPN, and 400Gbps standards also featured strongly.

This is only a snapshot of the many valuable things we learnt at AusNOG 2018. They’re important issues to keep on top of. If you don’t have time to research and address these for your clients, don’t stress! Cloud Plus is on the frontlines of the latest industry news and innovations and how it can support your clients. Reach out and ask us more – we’d love to help.

Providing peace of mind

When your clients are entrusting their IT framework to you, we want you to know a Cloud Plus-based solution will provide:

Quality infrastructure and service.

Our product works, and it works reliably. You and your clients can relax and focus on what you need to do without worrying about your IT resources. Our investment in continuing education shows in the standard of our work.

Stability in our offering and progression as new technology surfaces.

We never jump on unresearched bandwagons. We fully investigate and test all new developments before incorporating them into our solutions. Because this is our specialty and focus, we keep our finger on the pulse.

We want you to know you can recommend Cloud Plus to your clients, safe in the assurance you will get a quality, stable solution. If you’d like to know more about what we offer, contact us for a chat. And, if you’re looking for a quality cloud solution, we recommend reaching out to one of the channel partners in our extensive partner network.

Name: Pavel Luska

Location: Prague

1. What is your role at Cloud Plus?

I am the Voice Team Leader. My role is to work with the team to provide voice related solutions. We provide Mitel-based Managed UCC and Contact Centre solutions that are hosted on our own Virtual Data Centre infrastructure in leading datacentres around Australia.

2. How long have you been in that role?

I am a newbie in the Cloud Plus family and have been here since the end of 2017. I have been in the ICT industry since 1999.

3. How did you get into the ICT industry?

My father was in the ICT industry and he was my first teacher. I knew exactly what I wanted to study, thanks to my father.

4. What do you enjoy most about the ICT industry?

I like to discover and learn about new technologies and the possibilities that they provide. You can use the ICT industry to connect people all around the globe. If I would paraphrase one Swedish phone producer and say it’s “connecting people”.

5. What did you do before Cloud Plus?

For 15 years I worked for a Czech company using French Mitel solutions… I started my own business in 2015 which focused on VoIP solutions. Recently, I was asked by Cloud Plus to join their team.

6. What’s the best thing about working at Cloud Plus?

It’s like a big happy family!

7. What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

Hanging out with my family and traveling all around the world.

8. What is the first music tape/CD/record you ever purchased?

It was quite a long time ago, but I think it was a Madonna LP.

9. Best holiday destination?

Not only the best destination, but the best holiday was with my wife in California and Las Vegas. It was the craziest vacation ever and by the way, we got married in Las Vegas!

10. Favorite movie?

Falling down. A lot of truth in that movie

11. Looking to the future….In five years I will be

It’s simple. I still want to be in the Telco industry. I love doing my job. Maybe in the future I would like to move to Australia with my family for a while and help Cloud Plus expand their Voice business further.

See the rest of our team HERE

We are excited to be celebrating our latest award for outstanding collaboration, presented to our team at the ARN Innovation Awards 2018.

Our number one priority at Cloud Plus is to provide the right ICT solution to our Channel Partners’ and for them to continually be proud to work with us.

We achieve this by putting partnership at the heart of how we work – by investing heavily in collaboration efforts with our Channel Partners so that we properly understand their clients’ requirements. Together, we implement our unique and mouldable Cloud Solution Framework, comprising a complete ICT solution that supports client data, security, hosting, voice, backup and disaster recovery needs – nearly the entire physical and virtual infrastructure layer of clients’ businesses.

100% channel focused

We remain 100% channel focused and continue to do all of our business through the IT Channel Partner network. We know that it’s our collaborative mindset that is the fabric of our business and how we make the ICT solution magic happen, but unless you’ve worked with us or spoken with one of our Partners, it’s hard for us to demonstrate this to new customers…until now!

 Awards for collaboration excellence

Cloud Plus won six prestigious awards in 2017 and we are ecstatic and honoured to announce our ARN ‘Partner Value Collaboration’ award that we received last week. The ARN Innovation Awards are the industry standard for celebrating and rewarding excellence in ICT. Presented to our team on a grand stage in front of 680 of Australia’s industry leaders, we were recognised for our work with Thomas Duryea Logicalis:

“Cloud Plus wins this award in recognition for the close collaboration work with Thomas Duryea Logicalis. The two organisations have a history of successfully delivering ICT solutions to major corporate and government clients, achieving a high rate of client retention and an ongoing pipeline of opportunities.” – ARN Innovation Awards Judges.

Highly commended

A truly memorable event for us, ARN also recognised Cloud Plus as innovators and game-changers. Our team were highly commended in the awards categories for ‘Emerging Technology Cloud’ and ‘Homegrown Innovators Service Provider.’

We are also hugely proud of our CEO Jules Rumsey who was nominated in the ‘Personal Innovation Management Excellence’ award category.

These awards and recognition for outstanding work through collaboration, innovation and managerial excellence, allow our Channel Partners to show their clients that we are a proven industry leader, providing highly-regarded solutions. They also give prospective Channel Partners an objective third-party endorsement of Cloud Plus that backs up that we’re one of the finest Partners you could work with.

Results that speak for themselves

We feel the results our Channel Partners achieve for their Clients – through our Cloud Solution Framework – speak for themselves. It’s our dedication to a collaborative-style that makes feedback such as this possible…

“I put all my business through Cloud Plus because they believe in customer obsession, they drive their staff and their KPIs to live in my shoes.” – Mark Davies, Head of IT, Community Housing Limited

Do you want to work with industry leaders?

Partner collaboration, partner value, emerging technology and innovation are at the heart of our business and the way we work. We build first-class ICT solutions that empower Channel Partners to provide cutting edge services and products to their clients.

A valuable ICT partner, Cloud Plus’ win of this award backs up our 100% channel-focus and dedication to collaboration.

At Cloud Plus our goal is to be invisible. This might sound strange but what we mean is that our number one priority is to protect every single customer we work with via our incredible Partner Network from all imaginable cyber threats. And for this to be so seamless you don’t even know our solution is there. Kind of like super heroes.

In all seriousness though, we do take this task very seriously. Our three city roadshow in 2017: ‘Safeguarding business’s today from the cyber threats of tomorrow’ was our way of spreading as much knowledge as we can so that businesses are informed and empowered.

This drive to help is why we were so excited to attend AusCERT 2018. We knew we would gain a lot of new knowledge that we can build into our solutions to benefit clients and make sure that our Partners remain proud to work with us. We knew attending would help ensure we are staying at the cutting edge of cyber security. We didn’t know there would be a Star Wars dress up night that would expose how ‘unnerdy’ Steve and Mazen really are (Maz has never seen a single Star Wars movie – seriously!). But it was all worth it for an incredible few power boost days of cyber security intensives that will help us, help our Partners to help clients.

What is AusCERT 2018?

AusCERT is the biggest and longest-running Australian conference completely dedicated to cyber security. AusCERT 2018 had the focus: Building Resilience. It promised new information around how to build cyber security resilience, new ways of looking at old security threats, and the possibilities of security in a modern work environment where borders are dissolving and BYOD proliferates.

As Steve puts it:

“Everyone from industry vendors to reformed hackers and InfoSec specialists come together to try and stay ahead of the multitude of threats that our connected world presents us.”

Did it deliver? Yes.

Here’s a brief summary of the main take away points Steve and Maz took from the conference that we can feed into our service provision at Cloud Plus both immediately and into the long term. Cloud Plus Partners should read up on the topics below and feel free to call us to chat through any points that they feel their clients will benefit from knowing more about.

Tutorials deliver technical learning

The event runs over four days, with the first two days chock full of tutorials, and days three and four the big ‘all-in’ conference.

Risk management and data protection

Steve attended an informative tutorial on Information Security Risk Management and one that tackled a hot topic of our times: data protection and privacy. This tutorial focused a lot on the Australian Notifiable Data Breaches scheme (NDB) and the new, EU based General Data Protection Rules (GPDR) which has small notification windows and potentially big fines, so it is good to have some knowledge of it and if it may apply to you. It was great to get some detailed information about this topic that will help us answer Partner questions and consider the implications for developing Cloud Plus customer solutions.

IoT and testing security policies

Mazen went to a tutorial about IoT (Internet of Things) Security. This gave us some good insights into various methods that can be used to create layers of controls that compensate for some of the shortcomings of smart devices. His second tutorial was about social engineering, which was a fascinating glimpse into how IT organisations test their own security policies (some go to the extent of hiring professionals to try and gain access to their systems in order to reveal weak areas). Again – this gave us a lot of information we can use in how we work with Partners to implement and develop clients’ Cloud Plus solutions.

Cyber threats: how to see them and how to stop them

The conference part of the event was packed with incredible presentations by experts at the top of their fields.

Social engineering

This fascinating session delivered by magician and comedian Brian Bushwood revealed just how many ways we all can be manipulated into doing things, giving information and exposing ourselves unwittingly. It was a highly entertaining presentation but the points made were serious. They reminded us at Cloud Plus that we can never be too cautious about protecting clients by having thorough checks and balances in place with every IT process and system.

What’s ahead in cybercrime and hacking

Again fascinating and also pretty confronting. When you think about how many new and evolving ways there are to commit cybercrime and hack systems it can seem overwhelming. But knowledge is power and this is why the AusCERT 2018 conference was so good. By coming together as a community we pool our knowledge and then apply this to the work we do for our clients and communities.

After the intensity of the conference sessions, the Gala Dinner was a ball! It was great to see all the Star Wars fans kitted out in costumes and clearly revelling in the joy of childhood (and adulthood!). Brian Brushwood’s magic show, like his opening presentation, was hilarious and there were awards handed out to deserving recipients for their work and contribution to the information security space.

Well-armed for the future

Cloud Plus came away from the AusCERT 2018 with reams of new knowledge to feed into our own processes, development and customer service. It is comforting to know that we learned from the very best in the business and to get it confirmed that our approach and methods already meet very high standards.

Cyber security is intricate, technical and evolving so quickly. Our dedication to staying on top of it in every way has been bolstered by this event.

If you have any concerns about cyber security or you just want an informed conversation about the cloud do get in touch with us or a member of our extensive Partner Network. Being 100% Partner-centric, working with our Partners to make sure they benefit from Cloud Plus learnings and expertise is a crucial component of our business success in recent years.

One thing AusCERT 2018 drove home is that nobody can rest on their laurels when it comes to cyber security being built in to the infrastructure of their business. So if you’ve been wondering or delaying – now is the time to act.

Name: Rica De Jesus

Location: Manila Philippines

1. What is your role at Cloud Plus?
Network Operations Team Leader.

2. How long have you been in that role?
I’ve been the Network Operations Team Leader since December 2017 but have been a member of the NOC Team at Cloud Plus since November 2016.

3. How did you get into the ICT industry?
I chose this field as my father was also an engineer. He was a big inspiration to me and had a huge influence on my life. While my first job was as an engineering teacher, I felt the need to apply my knowledge to real world situations. I obtained my first role as an engineer working for an Australian ISP…and the rest they say, is history! 

4. What do you enjoy most about the ICT industry?
I enjoy fixing things which are broken – trouble shooting and resolving performance issues. I enjoy dealing with all different types of network devices and am in the fortunate position to be able to work on a wide breadth of technologies across network, security, systems and voice. I am really interested in the rapid evolution of technology and learning more so that I am able to offer our clients the best possible service. 

5. What did you do before Cloud Plus?
I was a Project / Core Network Engineer at another well-known Australian Service Provider. It was my job to take a high-level network design / solution, collect all appropriate information, map it to actual configuration and then deploy that on the core, edge and end client devices as required.

6. What’s the best thing about working at Cloud Plus?
Working with talented yet humble people. Cloud Plus is filled with highly skilled, dedicated people who know the real meaning of 100% Committed and put that into practice every day.

7. What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
Spending quality time with my two kids are some of my most enjoyable moments. Playing with them and answering their silly and out of this world questions is always lots of fun and keeps me on my toes.

8. What is the first music tape/CD/record you ever purchased?
Backstreet boys tape way back in the 90s.

9. Best holiday destination?
Looking forward to visiting a country with snow (probably Japan or South Korea). Living in a tropical country, my family have never experienced snow and my kids are always talking about it! Well they mostly talk about the snow when it’s too hot here and they are complaining about the endless heat.

10. Favourite movie?
Forrest Gump.

11. Looking to the future….In five years I will be
A CEO of my own company – It’s free to dream hey! But seriously, I’m enjoying managing the Network Operations Team and look forward to remaining in this role as we continue to expand. I’m keen to continue learning and have a number of key certifications / qualifications in my sights!

See the rest of our team HERE

Nando’s Australia has over 200 restaurants and needed a new solution to make private network and Internet connectivity consistent, reliable and secure across all restaurants. With IP-based loyalty, EFTPOS platforms and online ordering, network stability was crucial – if a restaurant lost their network access, they not only lost browsers but also the ability to transact with customers.

Ongoing connection issues in parts of the existing network meant that, from time to time, certain restaurants had diminished ability to transact before connectivity was restored. This was bad for business and also tied a lot of central support resources up in trying to manage network issues, distracting from other core and innovation activities.

Find out how Cloud Plus was able to help!

In the words of Shane Jameson, Systems Engineering Team Leader at Cloud Plus and based out of our Brisbane, Australia office.  Shane has been working with Veeam products for the past 5 years and this was his second time attending VeeamOn, the premier conference on intelligent data management for the hyper-available enterprise.

VeeamOn 2018 took place in Chicago and it was a completely different experience to last year’s crazy festival-type week in New Orleans. This year there was less emphasis on new products or features, and more of an opportunity to catch up on the last year (or so) of changes – such as the Veeam Availability Orchestrator, Veeam Availability Console and Veeam Backup for Office 365 v2.0. The result was that by the end of the week, my confidence was boosted and I felt my passion for Veeam had been totally invigorated.

I also enjoyed having time to meet and chat to people. There were 2200 attendees from around the world, compared to about 3500 last year I believe. This smaller number meant that the Australian contingent was also smaller than last year, but there were benefits to this and I made the most of the good exchange of ideas (and business cards) throughout the 3-day event.

Here are some highlights:

We’re with the right Partner. Veeam boasts a Net Promoter Score that’s 3.5 higher than the industry average.

The first day of the event was focused on Veeam Partners, so I got a lot out of the keynote speeches that day. One of the key things that stood out for me was the announcement that last year Veeam achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 73, which is 3.5 times higher than the industry average and makes Veeam the industry leader in customer satisfaction. For those who aren’t aware, the NPS is calculated by an independent third party and is based on a few different metrics that basically boil down to whether existing customers would be likely to recommend the product and company. Considering that Veeam currently has around 300,000 users it’s hard not to be impressed by such a high result that outstrips the competition by so much.

Vendors are now offering backup and recovery of objects from storage solutions – and soon we will too

The first day rounded out with a great tradeshow / expo, where I was able to chat to some of the storage vendors that are now integrating with Veeam to facilitate backup and recovery of objects from storage snapshots, among other things. This will offer some great opportunities for us to further differentiate the services we offer to our partners and clients.

How Veeam is getting ready for GDPR

The second day of the event was applicable to all attendees, so President and CEO of Veeam, Peter McKay, got down to business again, this time explaining Veeam’s new and improved vision for the organisation. I was really interested to hear how the GDPRs (General Data Protection Regulations) coming into effect this month has affected Veeam. They’ve clearly dedicated a lot of time and energy into ensuring compliance and they have practically had to re-write the software to support this.

Passing the VMCE exam made for a great APAC mixer event that evening!

At lunch time on day two I was able to sit the VMCE exam, which I have been studying for in my spare time. I spoke to so many people who’d failed it the first time around and in fact I couldn‘t find anyone who had passed it first off so I was feeling very nervous. I had also sat a mock exam online and failed that so I was absolutely convinced I would not do well in the real thing. But lo and behold, I was thrilled to find that I passed! So after investigating some of the virtual lab breakout sessions available in the afternoon I was ready to celebrate at the APAC mixer event and casino party that evening.

There is always more to learn and more features to exploit with Veeam

Day three of the event was all about the breakout sessions, and I chose to attend ‘A Sneak Peek at Veeam Backup and Replication 2018 Releases with Anton Gostev’ along with two Veeam Cloud Connect sessions. The sneak peek in particular was great – Anton’s sessions are always the most popular and it was a full house, so the buzz in the room made for a great atmosphere. I am particularly looking forward to the Veeam CDP (Continuous Data Protection) for VM replication  along with NAS backup support and the Scale-Out Backup Repository Archive Tier which will provide greater potential to utilise and make available low-cost archive storage options where appropriate.

Of course, the end of the three-day event was rounded out with a great party that was headlined by a local Chicago band named Mike & Jo as well as some incredible performances by a dance crew called Light Balance – check out www.lightbalance.net if you want to be jealous! This was followed by an unofficial after-party, sharing a few drinks with the other attendees I’d met from Australia.  Someone told me it’s called networking!

The biggest message I took from the conference is that CSP’s like Cloud Plus are only going to grow in importance to our partners and clients in the future.  We look after all of the heavy-lifting work when it comes to infrastructure investment, platform design, management and maintenance, and integration with related services. This makes it simple for our partners to deliver great solutions for their clients that just work – with no unnecessary stress.