Web Hosting Provider Hostworks Partners with Activ to Serve SMBs

HostReview.com
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; 01:28 AM

Web hosting provider Hostworks Group Ltd has signed an agreement with Australia's leading convergent solutions provider for SMBs Activ Australia Pty Ltd. Through its partnership with Hostworks, Activ will provide SMBs with a range of dedicated and virtual application and server hosting services typically available only to corporate and enterprise markets.

Using Hostworks’ Managed Service and Software as a Service (SAAS) capabilities, Activ will offer a number of centrally-hosted virtual application services that include the full Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft Exchange with Outlook, SQL Server and Web Hosting. Services will be delivered on a per-seat basis to the client’s desktop via private network or the Internet.

Activ also intends to offer dedicated server platforms for enterprise applications, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions for clients and partners that require more than a virtual partition. This approach will allow organisations to migrate existing systems on to the Hostworks-Activ platform.

Hostworks Managing Director Marty Gauvin said Activ would aggregate sizeable demand under a single customer. “Activ is very skilled at servicing smaller customers,” he said. “The benefit to Hostworks is that we get a low-cost channel that is skilled and experienced in delivering products into a fragmented market. Activ gets the benefit of access to a service provider that can guarantee its customers the 99.95 per cent availability they require for their businesses.

"This provides a brand new channel that gives us one more way to grow our market. Ultimately, it gives us access to the consumer market without the pain or the headcount.”

Activ CEO Tim Watson said Activ intended to offer services, functions and support extending beyond the network to the desktop. ”Our SMB clients demand ways to improve business performance and processes across their operating locations, just like any corporate,” he said.

‘‘We’ve proven that our Quality of Service (QoS) networks excel in delivering real-time applications such as Citrix, VoIP and IP Video for our clients, and we are confident that centralised application deployment and QoS VPN provides scalability, continuity and lower cost of ownership to business.”

Mr. Gauvin said Hostworks would use existing infrastructure to deliver these services for Activ. “We deployed second generation ASP (Application Service Provision) infrastructure last year to meet the needs of our customers,” he said. “We will leverage this investment to reach a much broader market through Activ, with minimal impact on the resources required to supply that demand.”

Hostworks (www.hostworks.com.au) is the region’s leading critical application managed service provider and is responsible for managing the availability, performance and running costs of its customers’ critical business applications. Hostworks does this by providing specialist services designed to ensure IT operations excellence. Hostworks manages critical applications for organisations that depend on quality of service and high availability.

Activ Australia (www.activ.com.au) has provided business grade convergent voice, data, application and security solutions to Australian businesses for more than nine years. Activ provides solutions that deliver business objectives – not just a service. All Activ solutions allow its customers to take advantage of innovations in technology as they need it.