All posts by : cloudyryan

With just two weeks to go until Accountex2018 – the UK’s biggest conference for the financial sector – CloudyGroup are gearing up for two fantastic days on the road. With over 8000 attendees already booked in from the UK’s wealth of accountancy and financial professionals, we’re really excited to meet lots of potential new contacts.

Our digital creation specialists at CloudyCreative have been working hard to get everything together including new-look display stands, podiums, business cards and brochures. We’re really proud of how they’ve evolved the Group’s brand to include real professionalism with a clear a concise message.

But as well as just exhibiting, this year’s Accountex is especially exciting for us at CloudyGroup as our very own Marketing Executive, Beth Jeremy, has been invited to give the first seminar on the Sales and Marketing Stage. Beth, who joined us last year and has nearly a decade of marketing experience as well as lecturing for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), will be giving a seminar to accountancy professionals on the basics of self-marketing. We hope she won’t give away too many trade secrets, especially as she’s already made us promise not to heckle!

This year’s Accountex show promises to be a really action-packed event with Keynotes Speakers including Chris Hooper, CEO of Accodex; Kath Haines, chief executive of CABA; Alex Falcon Huerta FCCA – founder of Soaring Falcon Accountancy and winner of Xero’s MVP (Most Valued Professional) Award 2017; business networking expert Itzik Amiel; business strategist James Ashford, CEO of GoProposal; and Cloud Pricing creator Mark Wickersham.

If you haven’t already booked to go, and think this exciting event might be for you, then it’s not too late to get tickets on the website. Accountex will take place on Wednesday 23^rd and Thursday 24^th May at London’s Excel. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates from the show on these dates.

We are ecstatic to announce that Cloudy Group is a finalist in the 2018 Buckinghamshire Business First Awards in the Apprentice and Young Person Employer of the Year category. To be considered alongside so many other great businesses is a huge achievement for us. With so many entries we’re so happy that we were chosen as a finalist. We’re thrilled that all our work to invest in young people has been recognised.

We’d like to thank our apprentices for all their hard work and embracing the experience of growing and learning– we couldn’t be Cloudy Group without you. The winner will be announced on Tuesday 22^nd May 2018, so fingers crossed for the result!

Director David Hall can’t quite believe it: “I’m so pleased that Cloudy Group is a finalist in this year’s Buckinghamshire Business First Awards. I know there were hundreds of applications and the quality of the other finalists is so high that to be included as part of this group is very flattering. I started my career in IT as an apprentice and I am proof that giving enthusiastic young people the opportunity to learn in a focused and positive environment really does pay dividends”

Apprenticeships at Cloudy Group allow young people to learn in a real work environment, giving them the opportunity to gain the essential experience they need to start their professional career. Training received takes place on the job, and our apprentices do site visits to our clients alongside our trained technical support engineers, so they learn in the same environment as they’re working.

We believe passionately that apprenticeships are the way forward for many industries, and we are doing our best at Cloudy Group to ensure that there is always a place here for young, eager people to hone their skills for the bright career that lies ahead of them. This award is a brilliant way to highlight the companies that are making a difference through apprenticeship schemes.

It is going to be a nervous wait to see whether or not we win this award, but until then you can always read about our Cloudy Academy, that works to help young people realise their true potential, and also how one of our current apprentices Denis, is getting along with his training, and discover why we are just so different from everyone else out there.

#Buckinghamshire #Business #Awards #BucksBusinessAwards #BucksBusiness #Awards #Celebration #success #Buckinghamshire Meet the finalists

-Sam Hall, Lead Copywriter

­­­­­We are really proud to work with different charities and local community organisations such as YC². YC² works hard to provide services that improve the quality of life and opportunities for young carers in Buckingham and the local area, by offering a solid network for fun, friendship, emotional support, advice, and personal development. The BBC estimates that there are about 700,000 young carers in the UK, and here at YC² we work with young carers in Buckingham, Winslow, and surrounding areas.

In supporting this charity, we have taken part in a few fundraising activities already this year. David Hall, Company director has recently completed a swimathon at the local pool. Swimming eye-watering 97 lengths in an hour, David gave an impressive performance in the water, and if that wasn’t enough he moved straight on and successfully complete a 20-mile run as part of MK festival of running! But Cloudy Group is not stopping there, please take a look at what we’ll be doing over the coming year.

We are taking part in even more fundraising activities over the year to increase donation for this worthy charity. With the MK Marathon already under his belt, David and other members of the Cloudy Group team are gearing up for the Buckingham half marathon, London to Brighton walk, Ironman in Wales, Rough Mudder, a ‘back to school uniform’ day all culminating in a Grand Ball towards the end of the year, taking place at Buckingham Town Hall! Keep an eye on our social media and our regular blogs to see what’s coming up next.

-Sam Hall, Lead Copywriter

Managing Director David Hall and Operations Director Neal Pallet, spent two days this February Visiting the headquarters of Viprinet. Cloudy Group is proud technical partners with Viprinet who are based in Bingen, Germany, and are one of our main suppliers of hardware for the fast, reliable and secure connections we provide for our clients.

The main reason they were visiting is to take part in two days of technical partner training, which is essential to stay up to date with the products we supply and also to ensure we are trained to the highest level. Cloudy IT use the Viprinet products – SDWAN – to help provide Bonded Internet for businesses with challenging connectivity requirements. These are often clients whose premises are rural and have difficulty connecting to the internet because fibre has not been installed nearby.

The training group consisted of the core partners from across Europe all committed to providing the best service to their customers. There was the opportunity to network with the other partners and share knowledge and experience about using the Viprinet products. The common theme was that using Viprinet products meant that Cloudy IT and the other delegates can ensure fast, reliable, cost-effective, and secure data connections—site-to-site, mobile, and portable for their clients. They also had ample time to really drill down into the products and how to get the best out of them.

Naturally, there was more than just the training, and during their downtime, David and Neal made the most of the local cuisine – yes, they went for a Chinese meal! Not quite sauerkraut and Bratwurst and Rostbratwurst sausages but they enjoyed the meal (and beverages) none the less.

Both Neal and David completed their trading successfully and were duly awarded their certificates complete with a gold seal and a handshake from the trainer. They both agreed that this training was well worth taking two days out of the office as the knowledge they have brought back with them has been invaluable and will make a real difference to the service they provide.

See their training in photos here

-Sam Hall, Lead Copywriter

This January our director David attended the 2018 Microsoft Tech Summit held at the NEC, Birmingham. This was a technical learning event for IT professionals and developers and it was a great opportunity to build on cloud skills with the latest in Azure and Microsoft 365. Whilst at the summit, David took full advantage of learning from Microsofts’ top engineers, evolving his skills and deepening his expertise in Microsoft products.

The summit is a great place to discover the latest trends, tools, and products with a whopping 80 plus sessions covering a wide range of focus areas and topics. This gathering of like-minded business people was not only a chance to learn from some of the best minds of Microsoft, it was also a great way to meet and connect with other partners, visit the community theatre and share best practices.

Cloudy Group is dedicated to providing the versatile 365 Office packages to our clients and this summit was an excellent opportunity to find out the latest apps within this and how to pass this onto our clients. Naturally, the subject of the upcoming GDPR compliance was a hot topic and there was some very useful and informative discussion around Microsofts GDPR Compliance Manager tool and how best we can help our clients utilise this.

It was a really inspiring two days where David could experience how much the cloud is really changing expectations and transforming the way we live and work. It was an ample opportunity to discover the latest trends, tools and keynote speeches whether you were already cloud-savvy or just getting started on the cloud journey. Cloudy Group is proud to be MS Partners with Microsoft and attending summits like this each year not only helps us lead our organisation through real digital transformation, it also helps us arm our clients with the tools to do the same and shape our digital future.

-Sam Hall, Lead Copywriter

David, Neal, Martyn, and Denis spent the whole day doubling the capacity of our cloud, upgrading key equipment, wading through miles of cables to ensure that we bring our clients the best possible service from our data center. With over 2.5 billion Internet users worldwide we need to ensure that the centers we use can withstand the increasing amount of data usage and storage. Obviously, we don’t have to deal with the 2.5 billion but we certainly make sure our numerous clients receive the best possible data storage service from us. To help you understand a little more about why we make these regular and important upgrades we’ve written about some key reasons below. 

The total number of network-connected devices under management with Cloudy Group is increasing significantly, which has created more data to store and process. Disaster recovery is also increasingly a top priority and our data center holds capacity for this too.  In the US alone nearly 3 million data centers help power their economy thus making their lives easier. 

So naturally – we want to make your lives easier and the best thing to do was to upgrade our data center.  In a recent survey conducted by TechTarget (which covers the latest industry news, technologies, and trends that impact today’s IT professionals) 44% of respondents said the reason they upgraded was due to increased apps and data coming into their centers. 

It’s a common fact that servers consume a huge amount of energy in a data center – usually, the memory components and processors and upgrading servers can reduce the energy consumption. For us, it’s not only about a more efficient data center its’ also about decreasing the energy usage. This is done by using more efficient server models like Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS). 

We store a lot of yours and our information in the cloud so our data center networks needed to be upgraded to support this. By modernising old power and cooling equipment and embracing emerging technologies—such as economisers—many data centers can conserve increasingly scarce energy resources. Using our cloud storage, we offer improved scalability and agility that you can’t really get from the traditional in-house storage solutions, which is another reason why we work diligently to improve our facilities on a regular basis. 

By Sam Hall

We definitely roll with the winners here at Cloudy Group. Our Cloudy Comms team work with VoIP giant Swyx, who are based in Germany and we’d like to share with you news that they won FIRST PLACE at the IP Insider Readers’ Choice Awards! IP – Insider is the portal for networking professionals with topics related to network infrastructure and IP communication. Swyx were chosen as the best in category UCC – Unified Communications & Collaboration. A huge congratulations to their team and we are proud to be partners with this first-class company.  

PRESS RELEASE 

Swyx is number one: The readers of the German web portal IP-Insider voted the Dortmund-based company as best UCC provider. At the “Readers’ Choice Awards 2017” Swyx took first place in the category UCC – Unified Communications & Collaboration winning a Platinum Award. 

After the excellent result in the readers’ poll of the trade magazine Telecom Handel a few months ago, this new award proves that Swyx ranks not only highest among the resellers‘ favourites but is also the number one for users. 

In 2017, the seven specialist media portals of publishing house Vogel IT-Medien called on their readers for the third time in a row to select the best IT providers of the year. In the period from April 19 to August 31, IT decision-makers and professionals were able to choose their favourites from ten providers preselected by the editorial offices in various categories. A total of more than 32,000 votes were cast. 

Our partner Swyx champion the use of soft-phone technology which takes VoIP one step further in allowing users to connect with conventional phones through their internet-ready devices such as tablets, laptops and even desktop computers without the need for a telephone handset. To find out more visit http://www.cloudyit.co.uk/cloud-communications/  

By Sam Hall