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From creative departments, through to marketing and finance, the reliance on customer information and digital data is becoming more crucial than ever before. With cloud services providing the perfect solution for those SMEs without the necessary infrastructure in-house, a new private cloud option has been developed to give more control and confidence in the safety of data stored in the cloud, without the big-business price tag.

With figures from the Federation of Small Business[1] suggesting that over one third (38 per cent) of SMEs still remain sceptical about the benefits of the cloud, harbouring concerns over data theft, reliability and access, InstaCloud has been launched to provide a low risk, low cost option for IT and data heavy departments to take advantage of private cloud. Founded by ex-Microsoft senior partner technology strategist, Steve Belton, the service is underpinned by a management team, who bring over 25 years of combined datacentre and hosting expertise and heritage, giving SMEs renewed confidence in using the cloud.

With a pay-as-you-go model and a monthly fixed billing approach, those with an IT remit or individual departments themselves can take advantage and easily budget for cloud services within their operational costs. Individuals can purchase the space they need and with UK-based data centres in Slough and London, concerns around data governance and integrity are reduced.

Commenting on the launch, Steve Belton, Head of Cloud Engineering & Co-Founder at InstaCloud explains: “Security and data sovereignty issues associated with the public cloud have tarnished large scale adoption of cloud services among the small business community in particular, in recent years. With many dismissing private cloud as an option and lacking the funds to go down this route, we have been slow to break down the barriers to take-up. Through InstaCloud we aim to give an affordable and realistic option to small businesses and a way out of relying solely on public cloud, which is often not fit for purpose or designed for consumer use.”

The InstaCloud solution is based on Microsoft’s Cloud OS technology and built on a state-of-the-art infrastructure platform. Offered with VM’s running Windows Server 2012 R2, including the licenses at no extra cost. Bandwidth provision is free of charge, with RAM and storage usage charged at a fixed rate. Network connectivity uses a software defined network and Cisco switches and firewalls. Solutions are provisioned with hardware and network redundancy in mind giving small businesses confidence in the integrity of their data, with NetApp storage ensuring high performance and stability at all times.

“Our instant private cloud can grow with a business and through the pay-as-you-go model there are no nasty surprises meaning usage can be budgeted for in advance. We believe that SMEs should have flexibility and choice when it comes to state-of-the-art hosting with cost and fear no longer a barrier to experiencing the benefits of a secure and scalable private cloud solution,” adds Steve.

InstaCloud is offering new customers a free one month trial and more information can be found at www.instacloud.com