BlackBox Hosting optimizes software delivery by helping customers move to cloud-based solutions. Discover the trends the unique, London-based cloud service provider has seen emerging in the European market, and how being Cloud Verified has given them an edge.
London-based BlackBox Hosting is driven by a simple, but singular goal: Take the headache out of IT by making sure that customers’ computer systems work reliably and securely at all times.
Director and co-founder Krishna Reddy shares the trends he’s seen shaping the cloud ecosystem and how being VMware Cloud Verified helps BlackBox Hosting’s customers move to the cloud with confidence.
Q: What makes BlackBox Hosting unique?
A: We offer the best of both worlds — full-service hosting based on market-leading, standards-based on VMware technology, backed with an equally strong full-service attitude. All of our customers receive highly personalized service that is designed to address their unique needs. This enables us to build the right solution every time. Our customers know we are a true partner, not another vendor and this is the ethos we ensure our team have at BlackBox.
Q: What are the typical use cases among your customers for the cloud and cloud-related services, and what are their primary concerns?
A: We focus on provisioning and optimizing the delivery of software and bringing it to the cloud so that our customers can benefit from cloud-based services. Notably, this transformation allows them to move away from traditional license implementations and instead enables them to generate the reoccurring revenue that comes with a cloud-based model.
Traditionally, the primary concerns about the cloud are things we as individuals are also concerned with when using technology: security, availability, reliability, and manageability. For big software organizations, these concerns are always top-of-mind when services are taken off premises, even as organizations increasingly realize that the inherent resiliency and redundancy of the cloud exceeds what the vast majority of enterprises can deliver with their own data centers.
Our response is straightforward: We get our potential customers to examine our track record of delivering secure, available infrastructure services and encourage them to check with our greatest advocates – our customers.
Q: How does your Cloud Verified status benefit your customers?
A: All of our services are VMware Cloud Verified. We’ve tried other virtualization technologies and found that they aren’t good enough for our customers. The fact that our infrastructure is based on the VMware technology stack also gives our approach added credibility and enables potential customers to consider our solutions with the confidence that they are based on proven, high-performance technology.
Q: What are the trends shaping the adoption and use of cloud among your customers, in the UK, and in general?
A: When Gartner’s research analysts talk about a massive shift to hybrid infrastructure, it is clear that there is increasing adoption of an off-premises model in which services are provisioned from the cloud. This trend seems to be industry-wide. For example, three years ago, many financial institutions we work with would never consider moving to the cloud or moving any infrastructure off-premises. Now they are gradually adopting a hybrid model, and it’s widely acknowledged that the cloud is the wisest, safest choice for many workloads and use cases.
We are also fortunate to be headquartered in London, where our state-of-the-art data center has fantastic connectivity and is highly secure. Latency is a big issue for many of the financial institutions based here. The use cases we work with require fast connections.
Another trend is the desire in software organizations — and among their shareholders — to see a consistent, smooth, and predictable revenue stream. This is easier with the monthly recurring revenue a cloud-based service generates than with a traditional perpetual license that’s renewed annually or longer term. Likewise, the move to OpEx from CapEx budgets is often far easier on customers’ cash flow.
Learn more about BlackBox Hosting and its partnership with VMware here.
