Hi Gang,
Well, where has the time gone? It really does feel like only yesterday that we were talking about going out alone as SWOTNET. Taking the decision to leave our comfortable, salaried lives was a big step, especially in light of the floor falling out of the economy.
Whilst we would never encourage a recession, we at SWOTNET saw the downturn as a chance for us to re-think some of the models for deploying technology in the academic space.
Real term cuts have almost certainly led to a slowdown in IT spends with the educational vertical as academics struggle to maintain world class teaching and learning facilities on ever shrinking budgets. This is a painful time for all involved in education.
So what have we at SWOTNET done over the last year to help alleviate some of the pressures now weighing heavily on decision makers within the academic space looking to provision ever demanding, technology led services?
Over the last 12 months, SWOTNET have been forging links within an academic computing consortium, HRC3. So what I hear you ask? Well, recently a group of like minded business professionals and academics, including ourselves, got together as HRC3. The consortium was established with teachers, IT staff and SMT members, all directly engaged with a team of highly skilled technology and service companies, including SWOTNET, to discuss the impacts of budget cuts and how collectively we might develop a set of tools, systems and services using our vast collective experience, which could answer many of the problems facing today's learning establishments.
SWOTNET have 34 years in house experience deploying IT/ Technology solutions for the academic vertical and in partnering with the Hertfordshire Regional College Team via the HRC3 project, we can be sure that we are perfectly in tune with the real world of teaching and learning. This engagement has served to deepen our understanding of the many issues surrounding the deployment of technology in a learning environment. We don't just know education – we are education.
Having access to real teachers, admin staff, senior management teams etc in a space where we can openly discuss challenges has been a revelation.
Yeah, yeah, all of this is great I hear you say, but what does it mean for me? Well, I am glad you asked. It means SWOTNET can deliver a set of bespoke services, perfect for education and we can deliver this with economic and technological security.
So what does SWOTNET/HRC3 deliver and what's the value proposition I can hear you thinking?
Our consortium has access to the world’s greenest Data Centre, THOR in Iceland. The data centre is really something else. It’s linked to the UK via a series of high speed, redundant 10GBE links, (soon to be further upgraded) which are ISO27001 complaint.
Because the data centre is powered by geo-thermal electricity and cooled via ambient air systems, our services operate on some of the most energy efficient, and costs effective servers on the planet, with a PUE= 1.06. OK so in English this means our systems are super efficient and they will help you meet any Carbon Deficit requirements.
One of the very real benefits of working with SWOTNET lies in our ability to accurately predict energy plans with regards to your IT infrastructure, allowing schools, colleges and universities to iron out the ever upwards trend in the UK utility pricing. Essentially, our power comes from the earth and the cost of production remains largely static and so we are not party to the market fluctuations as in our UK power markets. Whilst allowing this long range stability in your future energy costs, we are not restricting your potential for growth and we offer a fully scalable service, including on-demand system access to better manage business burst or short term pressure.
From our unique data centre, we can offer world class cloud based services such as: managed email, managed desktop, managed back up, and managed VLE etc. And the best part, it really is delivered by academics to academics.
I really could go on and on about the benefits of our Cloud services and the HRC3 partnership and will happily talk more to any of you interested in how to secure world class facilities within today’s academic budgets. You can reach me here http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/
In the near future, SWOTNET, HRC3 and its partners will be holding a series of events both web based and physical where we will talk more about our services and how today’s learning establishments can benefit by choosing to partner SWOTNET. We will be sure to keep you posted here.
If you want to know more about our E2E (education to education) service do reach out via the contact us link.
Andy
