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29/03/2006 - hSo's Aids International Salvation Army Flexible solution helped charity respond to Hurricane Katrina By doubling their connection speed, without one hour, hSo helped ...more 06/03/2006 - hSo Acquires Caladan Communications Limited Acquisition adds customers, geographic diversity. Caladan customers will benefit from hSo’s leading 24/7 proactive customer service...more 06/03/2006 - Ericsson Acquires Major Interest in hSo Swedish telecoms giant buys Marconi's 15.3% stake. The major telecommunications equipment and services provider ...more hSo Aids International Salvation ArmyFlexible solution helped charity respond to Hurricane Katrina Founded by William Booth in London in 1865, the Salvation Army takes a pragmatic approach to charity and now operates internationally in 111 countries. The International Salvation Army is one of the largest non-governmental relief agencies, and is usually among the first to arrive with help after natural or man-made disasters. Based in London, the International Salvation Army's headquarters manages secure online donations through its website www.salvationarmy.org. When Hurricane Katrina hit earlier this year, the International Salvation Army was able to respond quickly to increased demand on its network by having a highly flexible network in place from managed services provider hSo. Hurricane Katrina donations created such significant demand on the organisation that the International Salvation Army quickly knew that more connectivity was immediately required. hSo was able to double the network speed within an hour which meant that on that one day, donations from around the world increased to just under $6m. The International Salvation Army selected hSo to support its network in a competitive tender; Mark Calleran, Chief Information Officer, explains: "As you can imagine, being such a reactive organisation we have to be dynamic in our responses. Our challenge tomorrow will be different to the challenge of yesterday and the key to our success is flexibility. hSo came to us with a completely different philosophy to other suppliers – they were totally focused on meeting our needs and very cost conscious in their approach. We were stunned at how flexible they could be to every part of our requirement." Site to site data communications, including email, inbound access to the Salvation Army's website and all international web-based donations are carried by the hSo network. The network also connects to the Salvation Army’s disaster recovery sites and multiple carriers are utilised to deliver high levels of resilience and reliability. hSo’s solution means that the International Salvation Army only pays for bandwidth increases – up to a gigabyte if necessary - as and when required. Mark Calleran, continues: "We cannot afford to be unavailable at any time, so the resilience and reliance of our network is critical. As we also have to respond quickly when disasters occur, flexibility and scalability are also key, and this is one of the main reasons we selected hSo. Its managed service ensures we have the bandwidth, availability and flexibility to focus on supporting those people in need of our help." To explain the scale of donations the International Salvation Army handles – in 2002/2003 the total amount of donations received online was around $3m throughout the entire year. Following the Asian Tsunami, online donations (many from Australia and the South Pacific) increased to $3.4m during the course of one month. Even more astonishingly, during the month that followed Hurricane Katrina, the International Salvation Army processed over $40m of charitable donations. Calleran concludes: "No-one can predict when disaster will strike, and we cannot sit idle or lose donations that could save lives just because we cannot increase our network bandwidth quickly enough. Not only does hSo deliver the network access and reliability we need on a normal day-to-day basis, but the support team responds quickly so that we also have the flexibility to deal with increased demand as soon as we need it. We are very happy with hSo's managed service, and it contributed to our ability to collect so many donations following Hurricane Katrina - donations that will make a real difference to people's lives." -ENDS- NOTES TO EDITORS About The International Salvation Army The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth in London in 1865. The International Salvation Army is one of the largest non-governmental relief agencies and operates internationally in 111 countries. Based in London, the organization manages secure online donations through its website www.salvationarmy.org. top | hSo acquires Caladan Communications LimitedAcquisition adds customers, geographic diversity
City-based managed IT services provider hSo has acquired Caladan Communications Limited (Caladan). The company, which will continue to trade as Caladan, specialises in the provision of Internet services to the SME and Corporate markets, providing a range of services: from bespoke offerings to corporate customers; to standard connectivity and hosting solutions for the SME marketplace. Caladan’s products include Co-location, Hosting, Firewalls, Leased lines and Broadband. In order to ensure a smooth transition Chris Smith, founder of Caladan, will continue to be involved in the business during the integration phase and thereafter will be involved on a consultancy basis. Chris Evans, Managing Director at hSo, said: "We are delighted with our acquisition of Caladan Communications, which further strengthens our position within the Corporate Market by bringing increased diversity to our existing customer base. It offers us an excellent opportunity to extend our geographic base throughout the UK, particularly within the on-line sector where Caladan is strong, while Caladan will benefit from our outstanding customer service." "As with all acquisitions, there will be some small cost savings made in terms of network and infrastructure synergies for both companies. However, the real benefits will derive from the opportunity to cross-sell hSo's services to Caladan customers and leverage our extended geographic footprint to bring our services to a wider marketplace very cost effectively. - ENDS - NOTES TO EDITORS About Caladan Founded in 1999, Caladan Communications Limited is a leading ISP offering world-wide connectivity from an extensive network. It has points of presence in the UK, Europe and the US. With a wide-range of fast and reliable services available to suit the everyday Internet user to the most demanding company. Services include IP Transit, Web Hosting, Web Design, E-Mail, ADSL, Dial-Up Access, Co-Location, Leased Lines, SMS and Programming & Consultancy. The Caladan network comprises fast fully switched Local Area Networks with Gigabit backbones linking the separate sites and high speed routing to the Internet. Its extremely cost effective services are hosted from multiple locations throughout the world. top | Ericsson acquires major interest in hSoSwedish telecoms giant buys Marconi's 15.3% stake Managed IT services provider hSo is pleased to welcome Ericsson, the world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and related services to mobile and fixed network operators, as a major shareholder. As part of the recent acquisition of the telecommunications arm of Marconi Corporation plc (now renamed Telent plc), Ericsson negotiated to acquire Marconi’s 15.3% of the issued share capital of hSo. Chris Evans, Managing Director of hSo said "I would like to thank Telent for their support throughout the formative development of hSo. The creation of hSo would not have been possible without their support both financial and commercial. On behalf of all of our stakeholders I thank them and wish them well in the future." Evans added "Ericsson is a full service telecommunications equipment and services provider and we hope to use their products and expertise to develop and offer further managed services to our customers and target markets. This comes at an exciting time in the development of hSo, and having Ericsson as a shareholder can only improve our future prospects." Founded in 2000, City-based hSo has witnessed annual growth in excess of 100% and this achievement transforms the company from one of a plethora of technology companies with good ideas into one with a proven business model and a sound financial position. hSo's portfolio includes: hSo:VOICE+ (a resilient voice service which eases the transition to VoIP enabled services); hSo:VAULT (a high availability offsite data back-up solution); and hSo:iSTORAGE (an iSCSI based storage resource which links hSo's own data centre to each customer via a secure IP-SAN). The company's client list includes British Land, Churston Heard, Endemol, The English National Opera and The Salvation Army. - ENDS - NOTES TO EDITORS About EricssonEricsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world. The 15.3% stake was acquired by Ericsson Holding International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson ("Ericsson"). top | |
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