Internet Solutions (IS) has announced that all of the company's Microsoft Hosted Exchange clients will now have free, secure access to e-mail at any AlwaysOn WiFi hotspot in SA.
The IS AlwaysOn WiFi network provides high-speed wireless Internet access from over 850 AlwaysOn hotspots around the country, including all ACSA airports, Sun International hotels, City Lodge Group hotels, Three Cities hotels, Seattle Coffee Company, Dulce Caf'es and Mugg & Bean outlets.
“This [service] offers our Hosted Exchange clients the most cost-effective and efficient means with which to connect mobile devices to company e-mail, which enables staff to conduct better, faster business,” explains Hayden Lamberti, innovation and technology manager of communications at IS.
“A relatively small change has allowed us to rapidly increase the value proposition of our Hosted Exchange solution, which is very exciting as it is about seamlessly connecting people, increasing mobility, and therefore, increasing knowledge worker productivity. As such, this change will allow our clients to be that much more productive, especially while roaming, as it removes the common barrier of finding connectivity before accessing mail while on the move, making 'e-mail anywhere' a reality.”
Cloud convenience
Nick Keene, cloud sales manager for Microsoft SA, says: “We are very excited to be partnering with IS to bring this solution to market, as we see it as an innovative way for the vast number of Exchange platform users in this country to securely connect to a software as a service layer, to really see the value of cloud computing.”
According to Keene, Microsoft's journey into the cloud is a high priority growth area for the software company, as more of its customers look for different ways to deliver their solutions.
“By partnering with tier one service providers like IS, we are better able to deliver solutions that meet this growing appetite for cloud solutions. This solution also circumvents a major barrier to cloud adoption for many end-users in this country, which is connectivity. The ability to now connect to IT services hosted in the cloud via a wide and reliable WiFi network is a major step forward in solving these issues, as it gives customers access to e-mail on any device, at any time.”
Keene and Lamberti agree that the ability to deliver software and IT services in an opex model has grown exponentially, with massive growth in the adoption of Hosted Exchange solutions experienced globally, in preference to capital-intensive on-premises solutions.
“Hosted e-mail is the mainstay for driving the demand for hosted services, and we believe that it will be the base from which we can deliver more unified communication solutions, like Microsoft Hosted Lync.
“A number of our customers are already looking to include this service with Hosted Exchange, to create a more collaborative platform from the cloud,” he concludes.
Existing IS clients who want to securely access their Hosted Exchange e-mail services over WiFi for free, can connect to any AlwaysOn hotspot and open their e-mail to use this service.
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