As a company with customer service at its heart, receiving recognition for the passion, focus and effort of our team is a fantastic honour for us.

The final result will be announced by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), who runs the awards, at a ceremony on March 6.

At last year’s event we were delighted to receive ‘highly commended’ status for the award for Customer Commitment and the Customer Focus award; so we’re hoping for similar, if not even more, success at this year’s awards.

We are up against some tough competition, but being shortlisted alongside business heavyweights like National Express and LV= makes being named a finalist even more exciting.

Find out more about the awards and view the full list of finalists at the ICS website.

For starters it is like no other place I have known. The office, at the top of Manchester’s City Tower is stunning. There are hedges between desks, an inside garden with grass and daisies, not to mention the spectacular view.

We have a playroom with pool table, trampolines and every games console you could think of, and a kitchen with a chef. Free gym access, a personal trainer and fruit for the whole team are a few of the perks of the job.

It is not these physical aspects that make UKFast, it is the team. Every member is motivated, focussed and aiming for the best, but they are also enthusiastic, chatty and approachable.

The whole team is a community.

From our team newsletter to training days at our Mount Snowdon base, camaraderie and community is encouraged and developed at every opportunity.

Running through our team are our five cores values: passionate, dynamic, innovative, supportive and professional; values that every applicant must show before joining the team. We strive to be the best that we can and you will very rarely, if ever, hear anyone in the office say ‘no’.

The ambition and tenacity throughout the company is infectious and is, no doubt, rooted in UKFast’s leadership. To put it simply; MD Lawrence has more drive than Vettel’s RBR Renault.

There are high expectations but equally high rewards – this year top performers in the sales team will be heading off to Las Vegas, last year they were invited to luxury ski-resort Verbier.

Finding a hundred people that will fit the exciting culture of UKFast is going to be a real challenge, but for those lucky enough to join the team – welcome to the start of your UKFast adventure!

We’ve been named as a finalist in two categories at this year’s prestigious National Business Awards. Not only are we up for the Croner Employer of the Year but our MD Lawrence Jones is representing the team in the Entrepreneur of the Year category. We’ll now battle it out with more than 150 of the country’s most innovative and sustainable businesses before the winners are announced in November.

I spoke to Lawrence earlier today and he said: “We’re extremely proud to be shortlisted for these awards – especially those that recognise our efforts in providing a great environment for our team to prosper. Our people are our most valuable asset and we do whatever we can to inspire them. It is fantastic to be named alongside some of the UK’s greatest businesses and entrepreneurs.”

We’ve also played host to judges for the European Call Centre and Customer Service awards this month after being shortlisted in their Employer of the Year category. While the judging process was entirely confidential, we received very positive feedback on the good impression made by our energetic and passionate team.

We’re also competing on a regional level this year with the judges from the Manchester Evening News paying us a visit earlier this week and Lawrence placing in the final list for EN’s North West Entrepreneur of the Year.

Winning EN’s big award would mean following in the footsteps of some of the region’s finest business minds including Bruntwood’s Chris Oglesby and Tony Wilson of Klarius.

All in all it is shaping up to be a very exciting season here at UKFast and we’d like to wish everyone the best of luck in any awards they’ve been shortlisted for this year.

The questionnaire is a new approach to ensure clients truly understand the specifics of what we are offering them and the low level detail of how it will be configured. I see our service akin to an expert tailor. The client wants a suit and working together we take their measurements, demonstrate and discuss the choice of fabrics and cuts etc. During the process notes are taken and fine details like the colour of the button thread are specified. Ultimately there is a high level of trust put in the tailor to do a good honest job. Of course, if the client spends the next three weeks eating excessively and sitting down all day there is a good chance the suit won’t fit. The best tailor will advise colours that work with your tones and make it clear there are circumstances outside of their control. I’m sure many have politely advised an extra inch on the waist just in case!

Last year I ordered a tailored shirt online. I was confused by the web site’s user interface and the lack of a recall facility at the end of the order meant it arrived and literally went down to my knees! My wife found it hilarious and the online provider asked for photo evidence before shipping me a replacement at no charge. I believe there is a picture of me in the distant Spanish office wearing this giant shirt to the delight of the workers there. If they had a better questionnaire during the build process then they wouldn’t have wasted the time constructing a shirt that wasn’t what I needed or could use.

Full of monitoring options, RAID configurations and load balancing rules I am really excited about getting our new imitative live so we can do an even better job of setting our client expectations, covering the edge cases and providing the client with options they never knew existed. This is a fine contribution to our mission to continually improve our customer service.

The announcement will come as little surprise to many as Microsoft has been moving further into cloud technologies more and more over the past five years and few could forget last year’s “all-in” cloud speech.

At this year’s WPC, senior leaders from the company discussed how Microsoft’s partners can benefit from the transition to cloud computing by helping customers to improve agility, focus on business goals and reduce costs.

Satya Nadella, president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft, said: “Cloud computing is as big a transformation as we have ever seen.

“By betting on Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing, partners can embrace this transformation and build strong and vibrant practices that will advance how business gets done.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confessed that the company declaring itself “all in” on the cloud at last year’s WPC was scary stuff.

He said: “Well why was last year scary? Last year I basically said at this meeting, ‘We’re all-in on the cloud, 100 percent, and we need partners who want to come with us.’

“It doesn’t mean that the business has all transitioned in the last 12-month period of time, but we’re all in. It is where things are going and we need you to decide whether you’re coming with us. So, to see 15,000 people here at the STAPLES Centre coming with us, pushing to the cloud, pushing Windows Azure, pushing Office 365, that to me is exciting after me being a little nervous last year that some of you might say, hey, we can’t quite be all in the cloud.”

At UKFast we’ve felt the full force of Microsoft’s push into the cloud for the last few years. Back in 2009 we developed the first large scale cloud based on Hyper-V technologies. Our team also worked with Microsoft on the development of their own cloud in the UK.

We were also recently chosen by the Microsoft cloud team as one of two partners to make video promotions around the cloud. You can see the results on Microsoft’s site or right here on our own.

Back at the conference Microsoft also hinted at the new, much-anticipated, Windows 8. Tami Reller, leader of business and marketing for Microsoft Windows revealed: “We designed Windows 8 from the ground up to be excellent for touch-only tablets – and to work with the keyboard and mouse.”

The release date for Windows 8 is scheduled in for Autumn next year but whispers on the grapevine have suggested the launch may come as early as July 2012.

We spend years of our life in ‘training’ as we pass through various schools and colleges. Finally, we land ourselves a job and in many cases the training stops dead. You may find half-baked training plans or a small budget that will fund an online course- if you can justify why you need it. I don’t believe training is taken seriously enough in many organizations. It is seen as unnecessary expense or a waste of time. Thankfully UKFast does not share this opinion. I prefer to classify training as coaching, mentoring and teaching which must be continual.

How many jobs have you had where it took over six months to become familiar with the culture and processes? I have – more than once.

How many times has there been an error that’s affected a client and you’ve determined there is a training need to prevent it in the future. I have – more than once.

I see training as one of the key activities a company should do.

How can you meet expectations if you don’t know what the expectations are or what steps to take to meet them? Training.

How do you stop yourself making the wrong judgement for a client? Training.

I spent twenty minutes today with some new engineers coaching them on how our escalation system works and why. It was very informal and ensured I followed my simple rules to keep it engaging like including activities, re-enforcing key messages and using examples.

Despite a lengthy task list of responsibilities it is important that I always plan time to ensure our team is getting the training it needs to succeed. I have just slipped into my next time slot of the day so I’ll finish here and hope everyone makes time to train this week even if it’s picking up a book to read on the train.

Hosting the round tables and hearing the experts express their opinions always gets us looking at what we are providing more closely. In this case, it means looking at our video department.

Our video department has been running for four years. It might not seem that long ago, but at that time very few businesses were getting involved in video.

We have always made sure we produce a wide array of videos – from running up Snowdon, to school of hosting, to case studies. On top of this, all our round tables get filmed and a number of short videos produced to allow everyone to see the key discussion points.

We employ several avenues for getting our videos into the public consciousness. YouTube unsurprisingly is the main one. All public videos go onto our YouTube channel and it is amazing to see how many times some of them get watched. We also have a dedicated website for all of these videos - ukfast.tv. On top of this, relevant videos get placed on our main site to help boost that content.

On top of our public facing videos we also produce internal ones for training and this has become an invaluable tool. While we have found that actually attending a training session is the best way to soak in information, being able to view it on video rather than simply looking at the slides is a fantastic alternative.

We are really proud of our videos, and know from feedback we receive that people outside of UKFast love them as well. However, as with all things we do, we want to continue improving and for that we need your help. So, it would be great if you could answer these three quick questions and let us know any other thoughts:

1. What do you think of our YouTube Channel?
2. What types of video we are currently producing would you like to see more of?
3. Are there other topics we should be covering?

So we’re excited to bring you the news of Lawrence Jones’s interview with Richard Branson – being published by EN the Magazine for Entrepreneurs on Friday.

In our exclusive interview, carried out during one of Lawrence’s trips to Necker Island, the man behind Virgin talks intimately about his approach towards motivating staff. His advice to fellow business owners never to dismiss the potential of any employee regardless of seniority is very refreshing.

The cover story of the North West business title’s April/May issue hears Branson talk frankly to UKFast’s managing director about the Government’s decision to nationalise Northern Rock rather than giving Virgin a chance to run it.

He also talks about his involvement with the Carbon War Room – an organisation that harnesses the influence of entrepreneurs to develop market-driven solutions to climate change. Branson is passionate about stripping carbon out of the industry and he describes how an environmentally-aware attitude can boost the bottom line.

To hear advice on running your business from arguably the world’s most successful entrepreneur, visit www.enforbusiness.com.

We’ll also feature the best bits of the interview here.

EN is a monthly business title available on subscription.

Once upon a time, malicious attacks in the online marketplace were few and far between, however many online news sources are predicting that 2011 is set to be “The Year of the Hacker.”

Over the past 12 months, there have been several high profile cases in which hackers have been portrayed as silent heroes. Hacktivists defending Julian Assenge in the controversial Wikileaks case, or those involved in music downloading battles with large legal corporations were represented by the media as freedom fighters – bending the law to retain justice.

However it is important to remember that in the vast majority of cases, any kind of unauthorised entry gained to a third party’s web presence is illegal, dangerous and often extremely damaging.

From our privileged online position here at UKFast, we have certainly noticed an increase in the number of hack attacks. We also witness the extent of problems a company deals with when they do fall victim to such attack and the harm caused is often astronomical and difficult to recover from.

Our latest industry round table covers this very topic. These discussions bring experts together to look at how the internet has changed the way we do business, and on the 9th March our guests will focus on the increase in online “Hacktivity” and its implications.

If you have any questions you would like us to pose to our panel of experts, please do get in touch.

Also, if you feel you would be well placed to attend this discussion yourself, or would like to learn more about our round table events, please get in touch with Jonathan Bowers at jonathan.bowers@ukfast.co.uk, or give him a call on 0844 576 3909.

According to a TowerGroup study commissioned by Accenture PLC, banks that invest in sophisticated mobile services that allow customers to transfer money, pay utility bills, apply for credit or trade stocks from their mobile devices, can see a return on investment as high as 300 per cent.
But achieving that level of success requires more than just communicating with customers via text messages or building a functional mobile website. Accenture is right to suggest a return of 300 per cent relies on a “sophisticated” mobile service.

UKFast held a Round Table event last week where six m-commerce experts discussed the state of the mobile web market and how businesses should manage their mobile presence. They debated how seriously businesses were taking m-commerce and discussed the security issues surrounding it. They agreed that few businesses realise the significance of the mobile web as a route to market and are therefore failing to invest in the right level of technology and security.

Savvy businesses, the panellists agreed, would recognise that mobile web is likely to become a dominant means of reaching their customers and invest heavily in an infrastructure that can stand up to the security threats to the mobile device.

In 2010 smartphone purchases increased by 72.1 per cent. According to a study by Appcelerator and IDC released in January, of the seven most common business models that brands, retailers, publishers and developers use to monetize applications, mobile commerce showed the most gains year on year.

Mobile commerce showed 86 percent year-on-year growth – a strong vote of confidence in mobile commerce as a viable long-term business model.

To hear advice from the experts on how to launch a mobile web presence sensibly, you can view our Round Table videos here: http://www.ukfast.tv/

Or read our press releases here: http://www.ukfast.co.uk/press-releases.html

UKFast was privileged enough to be joined by six social media experts from around the country, who provided us with a lively debate, unearthing useful advice for SMEs using Twitter for the first time. They shared information on how to overcome the common teething problems on Twitter and how to maximise the potential of the social media platform.

Laura Wolfe, founder and managing director of Manchester-based marketing firm, Journey 9, shared her experience of winning a major contract through Twitter but was keen to point out that the business deal came about as a result of a conversation that was completely off the subject.

Conversations that Laura had at the beginning of her ‘Twitter career’ were based around her love of football and life as a working mum. The business relationships developed much later on. Laura put this down to ‘being nosy’ and having the ability to slide into chats easily. “Twitter is effective and works for my business because it’s effective for me personally” She said.

Leanne Forshaw-Jones, director of digital communications for PR firm Roland Dransfield, warned that a half-hearted attempt at developing a presence on Twitter could be more harmful than ignoring it entirely.

Leanne rightly pointed out that companies need to find the person in the business who can commit to maintaining the presence on Twitter. With a wealth of experience developing companies’ digital strategies, she has seen too many businesses that’ve created social media accounts, branded them and just let the cobwebs grow. This is a fatal flaw.

One of our panellists has since, on reflection, raised concerns about the downsides of diving head first into implementing social media strategies. On his own blog, http://www.thesocialweb.co.uk/, Paul Sutton, head of social comms at Bottle PR, makes a valid point, asking the pertinent question – “SHOULD businesses even be using Twitter?”.

Speaking from years of experience, Paul raises the issue about whether or not Twitter produces a good enough return for businesses without a big budget.

The panel agreed that Twitter is demanding of time and attention and its results are by no means instant. It seems as though a lot of patience is needed to get the formula right and, like Paul pointed out, ” businesses have to make a ‘leap of faith’ to pay someone to spend an hour a day chatting away online with very little, or indeed any, return for six months,” he said in his blog post.

Our experts gave a hefty amount of top tips for you to take on board and we’ve put together a list of the Twitter dos and don’ts to start you off.

The Business Rules of Twitter:
- Find the person who’s genuinely interested in Twitter to do the tweeting
- Don’t go in for the hard sell. Fellow tweeters will turn off.
- Listen from the outset and work out how you can get involved in conversations
- Use the search bar – it’s incredibly valuable
- Share your wisdom and knowledge on Twitter and help others out where you can
- Don’t be afraid of putting your clients on Twitter. If your product or service is good, your clients will rave about you and show their loyalty to you.
- Let your personality and interests dictate how relationships are formed

For more advice on building a successful presence on the social media platform, you can watch the videos from the Twitter round table online and learn the tricks of the trade from some of the best in the business.

If you’d like to get involved in one of our sessions, email Jonathan Bowers for a list of the upcoming topics or call 0844 576 3909.

A ‘Top Gun’ will ensure their emails are informative, concise, confident and build rapport; engineers notes to each other will be thorough and reduce the chance of error or repeating themselves; take ownership of issues and get it sorted; take pride in their work; they are well presented and ensure a fun, clean and professional environment. There are many ways to write it, but I’m sure you get the picture.

Quality is too often over looked by business in favour of volume. People respect what you inspect. If a business doesn’t inspect quality then people won’t focus on delivering it. Many support centre metrics will focus merely on the number of calls abandoned or the length of time on calls. I care that our client communications are always top quality. Were our team professional, courteous, timely and accurate? Today I ask you to look at what you’ve produced and ask yourself is it really Top Gun? If you struggle to answer yes then I suggest the service industry is not your best fit.

The study found that only 30 per cent of the 228 UK IT staff surveyed are satisfied with their current employment, with 92 per cent of these people considering a change.

At UKFast we are proud to buck this trend.

Despite being a new entrant to the latest Great Places to Work list featured in the Financial Times, UKFast topped the most fun and friendly workplace category and achieved fifth place in the best for learning and development section of the survey for 2010.

Managing director of UKFast, Lawrence Jones says, “We have been fortunate enough to win praise over the years for a variety of disciplines, however this accolade reminds me why I get up every morning. To be recognised as the most ‘fun and friendly’ place out of all UK businesses is a real honour or a very big mistake!”

Lawrence continues: “The relationship between employee well-being and productivity is vitally important and I think that many small and medium-sized businesses need assistance now more than ever before.”

Monster’s research shows that, on a more positive note, the number of IT industry job opportunities has increased more than any other UK sector year-on-year.

Isabelle Ratinaud, a spokesperson from Monster UK commented: “Taking into account the recent announcements of a contraction in the UK economy, it’s encouraging to see this increase in job opportunities.”

“IT has led all sectors in terms of annual growth, exhibiting a 34 per cent increase. This is a strong recovery for the sector, which suffered a large dip in jobs throughout the recession,” she added.

If you are looking for a new and exciting opportunity from the most Fun and Friendly Place to work in the UK, why not check out our current vacancies?

The following table shows affected software by bulletin and the likelihood of an Operating System restart being required and hence impacting on services provided.

In summary, we are likely to see updates requiring reboots of servers this month.

MC.

(as usual, as a UKFast customer, you benefit from these updates being applied automatically unless you have opted out of this service.)

ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 163 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. ISO standards are regulated in the UK by a governmental body called UKAS – United Kingdom Accreditation Service. If you don’t see the UKAS tick box and crown, don’t trust that the organisation is formally registered.

UKFast managed hosting services in all their many forms are certified to the ISO 9001, 14001 and 27001 standards.

For those of you struggling to remember which number correlates to which standard (there are around 16 500 of them after all), they are:

• ISO 9001: Quality Management

• ISO 14001: Environmental Management

• ISO 27001: Information Security Management

For many larger organisations – service providers and suppliers must be certified to one or more of these standards as a prerequisite, to officially be allowed to tender for business.

The reason is that they are a sign of quality, best practice and an on-going commitment to continual improvement – and when entering into a relationship that requires an organisation to trust UKFast with critical data, customers want as many guarantees and reassurances as possible that UKFast conducts business in accord with international best practice and standards.

So what does this give organisations, suppliers and consumers?  Well at the end of the day it is all about confidence.

All ISO standards demand that organisations demonstrate a commitment to continual improvement and that this approach is verified by annual, independent audit on a 3 year certification cycle.

Customer’s hosted solutions are critical to the success of their businesses and operations and to this end confidence in their hosting provider is paramount.  ISO 9001, 14001 and 27001 certification is a demonstration of UKFast’s commitment to ensuring that clients receive exemplary levels of service from the UK’s premier hosting provider.

Traditionally, electronic recording equipment hasn’t been allowed in British courtrooms. It’s meant the coverage of British court cases has developed in a very different way to that in the US where the use of TV cameras in courtrooms has allowed many a case to turn into a media circus.

Video cameras are still strictly prohibited in all British courtrooms but social media commentators have suggested the leniency towards the use of mobile equipment could pave the way for the long-standing ban to be removed.

There are also issues related to the nature of Twitter’s posts. Can journalists really portray an accurate and balanced assessment of a court’s proceedings in posts of less than 140 characters?

What’s more, if Twitter proves a popular medium for consumers to be updated on court cases, how will the market for a full newspaper report of court cases – drafted from a reporter’s shorthand notes – be affected? Is this another nail in the coffin for the traditional newspaper?

The new ruling states that using “virtually silent” electronic gadgets to fire off tweets and other text messages is permissible but only journalists are allowed to use the gadgets and they must apply in advance for the permission to do so. It is also not a hard and fast rule – it remains at the judge’s discretion to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether the use of Twitter is appropriate.

Of course, the landmark decision is recognising the prevalence of social networks – and the internet – in today’s society but how the change affects the treatment of cases within Britain’s legal system should be watched with caution.

Ben Whitaker, founder of software developer Masabi, walked away with one of the evening’s biggest accolades for Software Innovation of the Year and told me afterwards how his firm’s growth has been driven by a clear focus on “The Everyman”.

Masabi recently closed a deal with trainline.com to roll out the mobile application it developed that allows users to buy and display UK rail tickets direct from their mobile phones for any route on the National Rail network without having to visit ticket offices or ticket machines.

He said, “It’s doing something for the everyman with mobile which means they can get on their trains without queuing. It’s an everyday bit of life and it’s really fun to be able to change an everyday bit of life with the stuff you work on and good ideas.”

Indeed it is. I spoke to a lot of the Digital Entrepreneur award winners after they’d picked up their awards about how it felt to win. Every one of them, from London restaurant group Pied a Terre – who were recognised for their developments in design and marketing – and online money lender, Wonga.com, who picked up the main award for Digital Entrepreneur of the Year, was keen to pay tribute to every member of staff who had contributed to their employer’s success.

So, success and growth for online businesses is about creating products or services that affect “the everyman” – directly, when purchasing train tickets, or more indirectly, by improving how they can go about their daily business, making things quicker, simpler or just more pleasurable to do. But it’’ also about involving the “Everyman” closer to home who’s involved in creating that product or service and allowing them to share in its success.

UKFast has long recognised the need to look after “The Everyman” since setting up as a small business in 1999. That’s why today it continues to create gadgets and systems to make customers’ lives easier and explore opportunities within the hosting industry

London restaurant group Pied a Terre and Masabi – the software developer that closed a deal with trainline.com in May – were among the winners at the Digital Entrepreneur Awards, hailed as the only national stage in the UK dedicated to recognising online business excellence.

Nineteen digital businesses in the UK had their entrepreneurial talents rewarded at a glittering awards ceremony held in Manchester last night.

Errol Damelin, founder and CEO of wonga.com, an online “micro lender” offering short-term cash advances to UK consumers, walked away with one of the biggest accolades of the evening, the Digital Entrepreneur of the Year award.

He said: “I’m proud to receive this award, although I couldn’t have achieved Wonga’s success without my co-founder and a team of very talented and passionate people. We are using the internet and web technology to disrupt a very large and traditional market and it’s very encouraging to receive such expert endorsement for our progress so far.”

The second major gong – Digital Business of the Year – went to Global Personals, a Windsor-based dating technology business and the most successful privately-owned online dating company in Europe, ranked eighth place in the 2010 Deloitte Technology Fast 50.

Ross Williams, CEO and co-founder, said: “We are very proud. This is a fantastic achievement for the company, a real testament to every single employee who works so hard to make Global Personals what it is today. It’s taken a lot of hard work – seven years’ worth, in fact – from all of us and it means a lot.”

After-dinner speaker James Timpson, managing director of key cutting and shoe repair empire, Timpson, offered advice to budding digital entrepreneurs in the audience on how to take a company from good to great with an “upside down” management structure.

Now in their second year, the Digital Entrepreneur of the Year awards are aimed at discovering and rewarding the best businesses on the web and were expanded this year to accommodate a phenomenal number of applications from high-calibre companies.

The winners beat off stiff competition from hundreds of web-based businesses who made up an outstanding shortlist of firms that battled it out for the British internet’s biggest awards.

Lawrence Jones, our MD and one of the presenters on the night, says: “It’s been a privilege to be involved in an event that recognises the innovators and entrepreneurs that are changing the face of the net as we know it. We’ve received a record number of entries this year from some pioneering businesses and have been truly inspired by many of them.”

The glittering award ceremony

The HR Girls Celebrate in Style as UKFast Becomes IT Employer of the Year

Our communications director Jonathan Bowers attended the award ceremony last night in London which attracted hundreds of business leaders and celebrated industry excellence across the UK.

MD Lawrence Jones is on a business trip abroad at the moment but sent his conratulations back to the team as soon as he heard, “We are delighted to have been named IT Employer of the Year, especially with such tough competition in this category. We are very proud of our fantastic team and are thrilled that we can bring this trophy home to them.”

Expanding from a 2 person operation in 1999 to the UKs fastest hosting network in the UK today, employing over 100 people, we now have our own dedicated team training centre in the foothills of Snowdon.

We’ve been lucky enough to win a number of awards for our employee practices, including being named the Most Fun and Friendly Place to Work earlier this year by the Great Places to Work Institute and appearing in the Sunday Times list of Best Companies to Work For.

Our category at last night’s event was highly contended with other finalists including blue chip companies Capgemini and IBM along with FDM Group, Lincolnshire Police, Box UK, Northgate Managed Services, MSM Software and HCL Technologies.

Lawrence continues, “We have always prided ourselves on having a highly motivated and passionate team who will go above and beyond to work on and deliver the UKFast brand and it is fantastic to be recognised for our employment practices.”

Over the last few years UKFast has offered some fantastic incentives such as staff trips to Verbier and racing days to Donnington park, however currently we are concentrating on our office space. By adding fun extras like trampolines, a revamped games room and even a grassy meeting area with daisy on the floor, we want to make our office environment a fantastic place to be, as a daily reward for our hard-working team!

Fancy a meeting amongst the daisys? Pop in to UKFast!

The event which reportedly started in Australia in 2001, has now become a worldwide phenomenon endorsed by multi-national brands, celebrities and is attracting a lot of attention on social media. The Movember website itself is sponsored by Marshall, Old Spice and Snickers who have done a fantastic job of aligning this with their brand image.

The Old Spice guy is one of the world’s most impressive social media phenomenons and whilst we haven’t seen the man himself sporting a mo, I’d hope that this would come during the course of the month. Old Spice’s manly image is a perfect match for Movember and so is the man who claims to “smell like Zeus’ bigger & more handsome brother”.

Snickers have also done a good job of associating its brand with Movember. Their ads with “Mr T” are a perfect match for the charity event and they have made use of this on the Official Movember website with the Mr T banner ads saying “Get some nuts. Grow a MO!”

It’s great to see such respected global brands showing they have a sense of humour and are in touch with modern trends. Movember is a fantastic cause and thanks to its humorous approach, it raises a significant amount of funding and awareness for charities such as The Prostate Cancer Charity.

Unfortunately, I am not blessed with ability to grow a moustache, not even without shaving for a whole month but at UKFast, we have quite a few guys with incredible moustache growing skills and even at this early stage we can already see some great Mo’s starting to take shape. You can follow their progress in the picture gallery on our website: http://www.ukfast.co.uk/movember.html

Here are the pictures of our clean shaven candidates Monday 1st November at 9am. We will update you as they groom and sculpt their facial hair, all in the aid of a great cause.

It’s not too late to register if you fancy joining in. For more information and to donate to the Movember cause, visit http://uk.movember.com/.

Unless you’ve been fairly well hidden under a rock, you’ll probably know that tickets for Take That went on sale earlier this week. Naturally, those lucky online businesses who sell the tickets have been ready and prepared for the onslaught of fans – or have they?

In actual fact, it seems that all the big name ticket sites have failed to prepare for the demand and none of them had the vision to see the opportunity ahead.

Users want immediacy and when a site is slow or unavailable, they will simple try the next one in the search results – especially when they are trying to get hold of something that is in limited supply. It’s not just today’s loss that the initial site sustains but the next time that user tries to buy tickets they will go back to the last place they were successful. Buying tickets is a race against time!

It’s not just about tickets however, when the news of the Northern Rock crash happened, customers raced to their computers and all tried to gain information. The site was not ready for such traffic and the bank’s servers simply collapsed. Customers panicked, phone lines became jammed and queues formed outside local branches.

Companies can sustain huge brand damage when they do not anticipate demand accurately. While not many businesses experience the kind of spikes in traffic that ticket sites have just had, or Northern Rock suffered in Autumn 2007, we all have busy times online. It pays to make sure you are ready to deliver a great service to every enthusiastic user.

At UKFast we host gaming sites and large corporates that appear in TV commercials during the UK’s most popular programmes. They work closely with us to make sure that their hosting is good enough to maximise on the peaks in traffic this exposure brings. It’s always wise to plan ahead and make sure that you’ve got the ammo you need to collect as much as possible on your biggest pay days.

Don’t leave things to chance and lose out to a more prepared rival. I think there’ll be a few ticket company execs shaking their heads this week and wishing they had anticipated just how big the reforming of the band would be.

And from one form of musical entertainment to another, the best answer to the following question will win two tickets to join UKFast at a Manchester Camerata concert this season. The Camerata are the North West’s premier Chamber Orchestra and watching them is an incredible experience. The new season is full of adventurous world firsts and we’d love to treat you to a truly memorable evening.

So, please send me your online shopping stories about sites that lost out because they simply weren’t there when you needed them. Maybe you’ve tried to buy Take That tickets yourself this week and ended up buying from one of the smaller vendors because the big players were out of action? Or perhaps you actually have a retailer that you always shop at because they are always there? Place your comments here and the best can join UKFast and the Camerata this season.

The role of brand identity is to reflect this, to communicate the company’s personality, culture and message to the public whilst differentiating you from other players in the market place. It represents your point of view and purpose. So it’s important that your brand is able to evolve with the times so that it’s an accurate portrayal of your business at any set point in time.

Recently, you may have noticed some significant changes in the design of our website and we’re all really excited by the new look. We believe the new “sketch-book” style we have adopted reflects the significant growth UKFast has experienced over the past couple of years. It reflects our dynamic personality, the energy within the company, the great people who work here and our strong focus on customer service and people.  It makes a statement and differentiates us from some of our more corporate competitors, highlighting the flexible, personal service we deliver.

Creating a design that reflects the ambitions of a company like UKFast is difficult, but we’re really proud of the work our internal design studio has come up with by moving away from our predominant use of black and using more natural colours and earthy tones. It effectively communicates the personal touch, the innovative and entrepreneurial culture innate within our organisation and the creativity that makes UKFast such a special place to work.

Register Your Interst in 100% Carbon Neutral Web Hosting

More than anything, the design team has done a great job of illustrating our environmental achievements and hydro-electric projects as the first certified carbon neutral hosting provider in the UK. Providing every single one of our customers 100% carbon neutral web hosting at no extra cost is a feat we are most proud of, and it’s essential that our design reflect this.

Ethical consumerism in the UK has grown over 260% over the past 10 years and today one in every two UK adults claim to have purchased a product primarily for ethical reasons (compared to one in every four 11 years ago). With more than 64% of people avoiding a product or service based on a company’s behaviour there has never been a more important time to make environmental actions a priority.

This is why UKFast is keen for our customers to share the benefits of our ongoing environmental innovations and we will soon be offering a Carbon Neutral ‘Badge of Honour’ that can be displayed proudly on websites that are hosted with us. Again, this is in line with our ethos that we are here to support our customers and do whatever we can to improve their business.

We believe that it’s people who make the business which is why all of our models (on the website and in our advertising) are real UKFast employees. After all they are the heart and soul of our culture and brand; we hope this is reflected in our new design.

In the spirit of promoting exceptional customer service, today we are offering everyone who passes on a positive customer service story to us a free limited edition watch!

Is there a shop that you always look forward to visiting? Or a sales assistant who makes you smile each day?

What big name brand have you had a positive experience with? Or can you think of an instance where an individual has gone above and beyond to deliver outstanding service?

If so, we want to hear about it!

Simply comment on this blog post and explain what company has impressed you with outstanding customer service and why. We will then email you to ask for your postal address and send you your watch as soon as we can!

Ion watches are infused with negative ions which help with balance, flexibility and strength.

Worn by professional athletes worldwide, Ion watches improve performance.

So, whether you are looking to improve at sports, sharpen your natural balance, or simply enhance your immune system, your Ion watch can help you on your way.

Tell us who you are a raving fan of and why, and your watch will be winging its way to you in no time!

Our three step plan consists of:

• Beginning work on a 10 Hydro electric power plants
• Becoming 100% carbon neutral both at our offices and data centres and the first hosting provider to achieve PAS 2060 certification
• Opening our new green data centre in 2011 filled with energy saving technologies

At UKFast we’ve taken green initiatives into our own hands and it’s been an eye opener to see that people disregard the importance of saving our planets resources, mainly because continual ‘green’ efforts often bring little material reward and immediate gain.

We’re not the only go getting green IT ambassadors that believes this attitude is weighing down on industries and allows people to pass the blame or worse, wait until it becomes a craze and the ‘in’ thing to do.

Over the past few weeks it’s great to see many companies across the globe revealing their plans for a sustainable future. This is a cause that we have been passionate about for some time, which is evident in our most recent carbon neutral schemes and the implementation of our green data centre. With the use of a free cooling system, using external air to for cooling instead of air conditioning, we will significantly reduce the amount of energy needed to run the facility.

Currently, air conditioning accounts for third to a half of the total energy consumption of a data centre. It’s a very positive step to see that internet leaders Facebook and eBay are also following suit by reducing their data centre emissions, largely through better air flow management too. One of the projects at eBay’s data centre has already reduced carbon emissions by 16 per cent which makes a significant difference.

Google recently made a series of investments outside its core Internet-search business. In a move that could eliminate “a major barrier to scaling up offshore wind” and “help lessen the load on the Northeast USA power grid”, the technology giant is backing an ambitious project that will lay undersea cables to connect offshore windmills off the mid-Atlantic coast.

The project will run 350 miles along the New Jersey coast to Virginia and will be able to connect 6,000 megawatts of off shore turbine. An amount equivalent to 60 per cent of the wind energy installed in the entire U.S. last year, and enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households.

In addition to our overseas friends, it seems as though a coalition of British energy firms are attempting to turn our climate around and have united to reveal plans for a £54m smart grid project designed to test the impact of electric vehicles and solar panels on the UK grid.

The conglomerate hopes that the results of the trial will help speed up the installation of low-carbon technology across the UK, potentially saving homes and businesses around £8bn in energy costs and 43 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

Research analyst Verdantix predicts that over the next few years the green consultancy market is set to experience a boom, expanding by 60 per cent and is to reach £627 million this year alone.

Here at UKFast, we hope that these green initiatives are being driven by a combination of upcoming climate change legislation and a growing desire among blue-chip firms to use their market position as green innovators.

However, it seems as though many organisations are viewing the sustainability market as a by a product of monetary gain and promotional practises.

UKFast is determined to make a difference and change the way the internet is powered. The future is becoming carbon neutral, not powering up corporate social responsibility for PR purposes.

I pride myself on how I manage my relationships, looking my best and having a tidy house and lovely garden. Why do some people care and why do some people not? At a young age I recall being scolded by my mother for littering and I’ve never done it again. I am dismayed by some people’s lack of respect as they abuse their environment.

In the past decade I can really see a difference in attitudes towards being green and specifically corporations. We are starting to do our part to make a difference. As such, I am genuinely very proud to be working for a carbon neutral company.

UKFast’s Carbon neutral status doesn’t come cheap, but it shows that our company cares and that matters to me. Did you realise a blog has a carbon footprint? I’m almost feeling guilty as I write this, but I did walk three miles this morning and my blog is hosted in our carbon neutral servers – phew!

Excellent customer service that can create ‘Raving Fans,’ requires many key ingredients. Caring is like the egg in a cake mixture. It binds everything together and is a requirement. Our carbon neutral status should demonstrate that we care and as a result I’m hopeful that it will attract like-minded caring individuals to join our team or to come and do business with us.

If you truly care then take action now and you will have the foundations to better serve your customers, family or the planet.

This means that not only our company itself, but also all of the solutions we offer to our clients, are entirely carbon neutral – free of charge and starting now!

We have been pushing boundaries with regards to our reduced impact on the environment behind closed doors for some time now, but I think I speak for the whole team when I say that I am incredibly proud to be able to tell the world exactly what we have been up to.

The benefits of this scheme are numerous. Obviously there are incredibly positive environmental repercussions to our scheme, but increased employee satisfaction is also a powerful benefit.

Nowadays, people are far more aware of the world around them and many see Corporate and Social Responsibility as a must. The fact that UKFast is at the forefront of this movement within the industry is something we are all really proud of as well as something we hope will continue to attract more fantastic people – both clients, and new recruits.

To say that our whole business is 100% carbon neutral is great, but knowing that we are also over the moon to be able to say that we are the first PAS 2060 Certified hosting provider!

And this is just the beginning…

With this launch of UKFast Energy, we can now reveal that we have been working on a series of Hydro electric power plants with the help and support of The Co-operative Bank. This means that soon, we will not only be a Carbon Neutral company, but by creating our own clean energy, UKFast will be providing eco-friendly power back into the grid!

We look forward to telling the world about our great achievements at E-Commerce Expo this week! If you’re around for a quick chat, come and meet us at Stand 508.

Read our official statement here

The R&D team here at UKFast have been working behind the scenes making all of our lives easier, as usual; and ensuring we can sleep easy at night knowing for sure that our solutions are working correctly. We’re constantly increasing the number of services and applications we can monitor and also making the reporting off the back of the alerting more and more advanced.

Here’s a little snapshot of what we’re monitoring these days and whether this monitoring is “basic” or “advanced”.

Basic monitoring essentially means we are just checking if something is responding (but does not guarantee the service is 100% operational) and is a good basic and simple check.

The Advanced checks go into a bit more detail and check for specific responses, values or limits.

DNS                      Basic                Monitor DNS service is up
FTP                       Basic                Monitor FTP service is up
HTTP                    Basic                 Monitor Port 80 (http) is up
HTTPS                 Basic                 Monitor Port 443 (https) is up
IMAP                     Basic                Monitor IMAP is up
MySQL                 Basic                 Monitor MySQL is up
Ping                      Basic                 Monitor device is up
POP3                    Basic                 Monitor POP3 is up
SMTP                    Basic                Monitor SMTP is up
JBOSS                  Basic                Monitor JBOSS is up on port 8080
SQL                       Basic                Monitor MSSQL is up
UKFSQL               Basic                Monitor MSSQL is up on port 1334
PROCESS            Basic                Monitor a process is running
MYSQLCONN      Advanced       Monitor the number of MySQL connections (warning can be issued at 2 thresholds)
MYSQLREPL       Advanced       Monitor MySQL replication delay (warning can be issue at 2 separate thresholds)
URL                       Advanced       Monitor a URL (supports both HTTP & HTTPS and can check for contents on page)

Not only can we monitor all of the above with no difficulty, but our IT Director has also laid down the gauntlet stating that he believes that there is nothing in a server that we cannot monitor!

At UKFast we are often asked about our business continuity plans. However, on many occasions this has to be pointed straight back at the questioner.

We start by identifying every critical inward and outward facing business process and list it in order of criticality.  All the information assets involved in each process are identified and referenced to an information asset register.

For each of the services, the risks are identified as well as the possible business continuity impacts that they would have on the business should they occur.  This can range in seriousness from the loss of site access through to the loss of site.

The risks are prioritised in terms of their impact and the business continuity planning process makes arrangements to tackle these risks in the order identified by the risk assessment process.

UKFast’s business continuity plans address all of our company’s activities and ensure that adequate resources are available to provide continuity to all information security assets. This includes taking appropriate steps for the protection of our team and all information processing facilities.

Our business continuity plans are maintained within a set framework and are subject to continual testing, maintenance and improvement.

You may be able to gauge that our BCP regime is extensive but this is in part because there are a number business continuity scenarios that would affect both our own company and our client’s business processes.

At UKFast we offer solutions to all of our clients that ensure if such scenarios were to occur, they would do so without an effect to their business processes.

In summary, the UKFast business continuity plans consider UKFast business continuity and specifically our network first, in the event of a BC scenario. There are a number of scenarios that will only directly affect UKFast business processes and a number of scenarios that will affect both UKFast and UKFast Client business processes.

So…what is your business continuity plan?

We were with the students for just over an hour and they had lots of questions, which was just as well, because one of the key points (about interviews) was to take in as many good questions as you can think of. I am always impressed by a candidate who turns the tables on me and starts to interview the business to discover its suitability for them!

One question came up that particularly interested me. A young man asked, “If I am interested in running my own business in the future, should I tell the interviewer this? Should I allow them to know that I am this ambitious?”

I could tell that they were not expecting my answer. I said “Yes, you need to let them know your vision, your goals and passion for success.” The man looked confused and asked, “What if this puts him off?” I responded, “Then it’s not the right job for you.”

It reminded me that in business there can often be a ‘watch your back’ mentality. The student was afraid that a manager or business owner would see him as a threat and might be worried that he would either be after their job or looking to learn from them in order to set up against them.

At UKFast we take a different stance. We see people with ambition as an opportunity. We consider the contribution that they can make to the journey our business is on. We also recognise that they could well become our leaders of the future and we embrace this possibility.

The ‘right fit’ in recruitment works in a number of ways. Most of the students entered the room focusing on their skills as the main aspect that would get them their dream job. They left it, however, thinking about how to promote the attributes that make them the person they are and wondering what ‘kind’ of business would meet their needs.

Since UKFast launched the ‘Building online Britain’ GTI scheme (Growth Through Innovation) we’ve been collaborating with online pioneers to share industry knowledge and skills with UK businesses. The purpose behind the philanthropy is to give those who want to conquer the digital market a little nudge in the right direction.

For the past eight months, UKFast has been partnering up with business masterminds to research and promote a better online environment for UK businesses, focusing on aspects such as innovation, speed, service and security, we call these ‘the round tables’.

Since we first started, we’ve been lucky to have had some majorly influential people itching to be involved, and with the likes of Travelzoo’s MD, Joel Brandon-Bravo, and Nick Brown, Chief Exec of Eazyfone, walking through our doors, you really would have to be barking mad not to lap up all the advice that’s being presented to you on a silver platter.

The B.O.B. campaign itself started out as a hosting fund that offers a £1000 share to businesses of £1million towards building your company online.  However, the campaign has since escalated into so much more, especially since our research unearthed some distressing figures about the lack of businesses online.

There has been a 45 per cent growth in online sales over the past two years (IMRG) but, somehow and somewhere 90 per cent of online businesses are failing. With such a berth of opportunity waiting for new and niche products and services to enter the market, there’s no reason not to be online and taking advantage of what’s sitting at a screen right in front of you.

The round tables have discussed numerous topics, such as ecommerce, online law and the marketing mix as well as getting the most from SEO. We created the series of online resources to educate SMBs and get them to the top of their game which is why there’s a wealth of information at your finger tips to push you in the right direction and accelerate your website.

In a two weeks time UKFast will host yet another round table, the topic; PCI Compliance. We can guarantee that the conversations that flow on that afternoon will be too good to forget about, so make sure that you keep your eye on the entrepreneur prize and watch out for the round up at the end of July.

Sleep with one eye open there are exciting things coming your way.

http://ukfast.tv/round-tables.html

For around 20 minutes the service disruption was intermittent for users, causing confusion in relation to the actual problem. Websites were loading slowly or timing out, while businesses logging into web based applications are likely to have lost connection.

Neil Lathwood our IT Director here at UKFast, was quick to recognise the problem, having analysed traffic graphs on the LINX website. At approximately 14.45, traffic on the graphs dropped off considerably as LINX was able to re-route services through an alternative stable channel.

“Because we manage the hosting for mission critical websites day in day out, we were initially inundated with calls from clients worried about their services,” says Neil. Our team have had to explain that the connectivity issues people are experiencing have no bearing on the stability of their hosting solutions which remain online and available.”

Neil noticed that the phones stopped ringing with such ferocity at the point that the traffic graphs dropped – showing that users had been redirected and were now able to once again access their services.

One of the world’s largest exchange points, LINX is used by many connectivity ISPs across the UK. So a great many businesses and consumers connecting to the internet through a UK ISP are likely to be affected today.

Around the table were a selection of the North West’s business leaders representing some of the UK’s heavyweight companies, from DLA Piper themselves to RBS, KPMG and Bruntwood. The regions public sector was there in the form of the NWDA and the Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company, while NW Entrepreneurs were given a voice by Lawrence and Richard Btesh of Chess (Fast growing telecoms company).

The session took a look at the government’s emergency budget and the state of the economy.

What was interesting was that it became apparent that the flurry of business activity taking place in the SMB sector is largely being missed by the majority around the table. We quickly realised that Lawrence’s viewpoint as a hosting provider gives him an insight that is more privileged than initially thought.

The general concensus around the table was that the economy is lifting but it’s going to take time and we all need to be patient. Lawrence was able to add his more optimistic thoughts off the back of the jump in productivity UKFast is seeing across the thousands of businesses on the UKFast network.

Because so many of the new projects and risks are being taken by businesses at the lower end of our economic scale, they appear to be below the radar of the large corporates. It was suggested that the larger businesses have to turn like an oil tanker in these times, while the UK’s small businesses are able to move quickly and flex their mini muscles to great effect right now.

The panel came to the conclusion that change is on its way and that it is the business communities responsibility to react positively in thought and action to encourage a swifter return to economic certainty.

You can view a couple of the videos from the event, with Lawrence’s thoughts on SMB growth and the community’s collective responsibility on the UKFast site.

It’s interesting to see that integrating search in particular to the overall strategy is something that the UK’s biggest businesses also see as a challenge.

The IAB’s Search Marketing Barometer 2010 interviewed 140 marketers across 91 of the top 100 advertisers in the UK. Nearly all of them believe that there is work to be done to properly integrate search into their overall brand strategies.

60% of them put this down to a lack of digital understanding from many of their marketing professionals/agencies. Despite this, 58% were intending to increase spend on search and 72% felt that no matter what they were able to spend it would not be enough to fully capitalise on this form of marketing.

Jack Wallington, the IAB’s head of industry programmes feels that a knowledge gap is emerging as search transitions into a new form and it is the duty of agencies, search engines and marketing industry bodies to educate brands with the knowledge they need to understand the medium.

Naturally, the knowledge gap offers excellent education based marketing opportunities for agencies and the like to attract new clients and create new revenue streams. However, at UKFast we have always found that the best way for a brand to understand more about a form of advertising is to get involved – rather than go and seek advice. After all, the experts are becoming experts in real time as they devote their resource to understanding the form.

It’s far more powerful for a business going forward to have an expert within, rather than have to outsource the need. We’re lucky to see the activity of thousands of businesses online. Talking to many of our dynamic clients the feeling is that knowledge is most certainly power when it comes to search marketing and gaining that knowledge and keeping it for yourself offers in incredible advantage over the competition.

New research by website optimisation software firm Aptimize has shown that websites of even the top UK brands are lagging behind their US counterparts in terms of speed. With Google’s recent announcement that speed will be a factor in the ranking algorithm this is a worrying statistic.  As well, web users are now spending more time on social networks than before, which means online businesses and ecommerce sites are losing out on their precious surfing hours.  At a time when the UK economy needs a kick-start not a slow-down we should be responding to these failings.

This week marks the official launch of Building Online Britain at UKFast.

Building Online Britain is a project run by UKFast which aims to help UK businesses achieve more from their websites through speed and innovation.  UKFast has made a £1million pound Growth Through Innovation (GTI) fund available for website owners to increase the speed of their website in order to compete more effectively in the marketplace.  We hope that through this fund thousands of UK businesses will accelerate their success online.

Access your £1000 website acceleration fund here.

UKFast will be partnering with other organisations to research and promote a better online environment for UK businesses, focussing on aspects such as speed, security, service and innovation.  If you would like to get involved please contact the campaign team on buildingonlinebritain@ukfast.co.uk.

It comes as no surprise then that we have just been awarded the Number One spot as most Fun and Friendly Office in the UK. The news was published by the Financial Times yesterday in the Best Workplaces 2010 list which is compiled by the Great Places To Work Institute.

Our people are not only creating a culture of enjoyment within UKFast but through this a culture of achievement and the company is growing at an exponential rate with more like minded individuals.  In the same awards UKFast were ranked 5^th for outstanding Learning and Development in the UK and it is this background of growth that fuels the atmosphere in the office.  A team that feels well-equipped and confident in carrying out their role will also feel satisfied in their work.

So congratulations to the whole team who themselves have created the Friendliest Office in the UK!

MyUKFast Demo Account

From the latest news to bandwidth usage charts the MyUKFast account is a comprehensive tool which you can use to proactively manage your hosting.

Our aim as a hosting partner is to share the knowledge we have with our clients to enable them to accelerate their online businesses.  We can achieve this both through faster, more reliable hosting and by sharing information on improving websites to gain more traffic and sales.

We offer a range of server management applications, such as alerts on maintenance and incidents and Capacity Threshold Monitoring reports which indicate the extent of your server usage.  These management tools allow you to effectively monitor your website and identify traffic trends. Clients can also manage their domains and support queries via the MyUKFast account.

CPU Usage Graph

One of the most significant features of MyUKFast is that we have made our School of Hosting information library available to all account holders.  Since UKFast was started by Lawrence and Gail Jones ten years ago we have always worked to be at the forefront of the hosting industry in terms of knowledge and innovation.  We want to share this with clients and non-clients alike to arm them with information that will help to increase their success online.  The School of Hosting includes to our full video library, which houses videos from external parties, such Google discussing ranking factors, and from the UKFast knowledge base on ‘How to Triple your Traffic’.

MyUKFast Demo Account

As a hosting partner we feel that one of the most valuable services we can provide for our customers is passing on the knowledge we have gathered about the hosting industry and online commerce in general.  Through the MyUKFast account and the School of Hosting we have collaborated our innovations in server management and our knowledge base to provide an exciting addition to our customer service.

Click to gain exclusive free access to the MyUKFast account and receive monthly website healthchecks.

• Ski trip to Richard Branson’s Lodge in Verbier
• Ted Baker Suit
• X-Box
• Selfridges Vouchers
• iPod Touch

You wouldn’t be mistaken in thinking that these are the items on the credit card bill of your average millionaire. In fact, what all of these things have in common is that they are all reward incentives available to members of the team at UKFast.

In the debate of monetary vs. non-monetary incentives it is believed that there is greater value to team members of tangible gifts and rewards over extra money in the bank.  What these incentives provide is a short-term goal to work towards and a material reward that is directly linked to an exceptional career achievement.

It is the job of the company to understand what motivates their team and provide rewards that are meaningful when achieving extraordinary things in the workplace.  Knowing your team inside-out and offering prizes and incentives to them that match their personalities can create a momentum and excitement towards achieving targets that other rewards simply cannot provide. What is perhaps even more effective is if these rewards relate to a whole team – who can collectively work towards a goal and share the benefits.

But aside from prizes and holidays, incentives that are non-tangible can be even more powerful.  Giving employees the ability and voice to make changes in the workplace and creating a sense of community within the company can be some of the most powerful motivators.  It stands to reason that team members who feel they can make a real difference will make more efforts to do so.  UKFast holds regular focus groups where team members can make suggestions about how to further improve the day-to-day running of their department and the company as a whole.  Playing an active role in the company encourages people to contribute further in other ways.

So if within your business you’re looking to create a high achieving and motivated team, the first place to start is giving people a voice and allowing them to contribute their ideas to improve your business.  From here both the monetary and non-monetary rewards will follow!

There is no doubt that events companies can plan exciting and enjoyable corporate days, but it remains that these events on the whole are co-ordinated by people who have no prior knowledge of your purpose and objectives.

UKFast have a unique company facility for team-building. The centre at the foot of Mount Snowdon is used by our team members all year round (come rain or shine) for training and leisure! Teams that visit will climb Mount Snowdon, build rafts to navigate the lake and take place in an archery tournament. These are just a taste of the different activities that are planned for each visit to the centre. What the facility allows is the chance to execute custom made team-building exercises unique to UKFast and our teams. With the training centre at Snowdon there is complete flexibility and freedom to try out new exercises and repeat those activities that were previously successful.

And it’s not all physical exertion either! The UKFast training centre is set by an idyllic lake in the middle of Wales and provides the ideal location for relaxing and bonding with colleagues outside of the work environment.

Next time you sign up to use the services of a team-building events company it would be worth it to stop and think whether they will really understand your team and your company. What team-building environments could you create on your own? How much more successful would these be for improving team performance?

Building your teams should be focussed on their needs and the needs of your business and where better to do this than in an environment that perfectly represents that!

In the context of a current member of your team imparting their knowledge and enthusiasm of a company to new starters it is not a great leap of thought to see this as ‘charging’ them up, ready to start their new career with verve and passion.

At UKFast we feel the key to a successful induction is educating those who are starting their career with us about who we are and what we stand for.  It is relatively easy to teach people about the different products and services you offer, but much more challenging to instil a belief in the company and direction it is heading.  At the end of the first week in your company how many people would know your company mission or where the company is aiming to be in a year’s time? Perhaps as important as this do you know where they want to be within the company in a year’s time?  The induction process is a two-way street.  As much as it enables new team members to get to know the company it enables the company to get to know them.

An induction process that includes a coffee with the managing director and informal introductions to the new team you will be working with is worth its weight in gold to any new starter.   Making people feel like a true, integrated member of the team as quickly as possible should be the over-arching aim for any company who is introducing new people to the business.  If you charge people up with enthusiasm to succeed and place them in a circuit where they are a fully functioning element you will create a massive buzz!

If you can picture this then you will have some idea of what it is like to work at UKFast, which has recently been voted as one of The Sunday Times Top 100 SME’s To Work For. It is no wonder then that the company itself is high achieving when employees are motivated, positive and most importantly – having fun.

Other such highlights of a typical working week include fierce competition over the table tennis table, dress down Friday (which very often is a themed dress-up Friday – particularly amusing when the theme is St Trinian’s) and team-building focus days which include such forfeits hopping to and from your desk on one leg….all day! Of course, as with any other business there are tasks at hand and targets to be met but achievements are made as a natural result of teams who completely believe in each other’s abilities.

For companies who want to achieve great things I can recommend nothing higher than growing a lively, dedicated team of people and sustaining an atmosphere of positivity and laughter in the workplace. Working as part of a team who persistently meets their goals whether a weekly target or getting to the top of a mountain, gives the business as a whole a sense of momentum.

UKFast is recruiting at the moment, looking for more like-minded people who wish to have fun at work! And for those business owners who are looking to become a great company to work for…your first stop is creating a team who believe in their ability to succeed.

As opposed to the traditional route of pointing traffic directly at a server’s IP, network traffic is directed to an IP on the load balancer. It is the responsibility of the load balancer to choose which server to forward this request to. There are 2 factors which help the load balancer make this choice:

• server health checks
• load balancing strategy

Server health checks ensure servers in a solution respond to requests sent to them. There are several methods used by load balancers to assess the health of the servers in a solution, including:

• Pinging the servers in question verifies they are responding and can handle requests. However, this method is not recommended as the required service maybe offline and unable to fulfil requests despite a successful ping response.
• TCP Connect is a more effective check than ping as it specifically checks that the relevant service is responding.
• A Simple HTTP GET request is better still as it establishes that not only is the service responding, but it is responding correctly.

Assuming all servers are “healthy”, the load balancing strategy defines the decision making parameters. Typical strategies include:

• Using Round Robin results in each server taking turns in responding to requests.
• Weighting allows you to specify the ratio of requests each server responds to.
• Specifying that requests should be sent to the server with least number of connections, ensures the best response time.
• Basing the load balancing decision on information within the URL (URL parsing) allows server functions to be specialised with certain servers responding to ASP/Streaming/HTL requests.
• Using information within the HTTP header allows you to divert traffic to servers depending browser used, cookie information and the requested domain.

The use of persistence and SSL offloading are common when load balancing dedicated servers as they allow more control in the solution.

Persistence, or “stickiness”, directs users back to the original server they visited with the purpose of serving stored information, such as the contents of a shopping basket or previously selected settings, again. When using persistence, be aware of the pitfalls as well as the advantages. For example, using IP based persistence often results in the user being directed back to a down server despite healthy servers being available.
Cookie based persistence (used in Layer 7 solutions) is a smarter choice and directs users to an available server when the preferred choice is unavailable.

“SSL offloading” (or acceleration) allows data travelling from user to hosted solution to be encrypted by the load balancer and not the server. Data encryption is server intensive, often affecting the capacity of the server. By offloading this role to the load balancer, data encryption will not affect the server’s ability to perform other tasks.

To ensure we make the most of the benefits of load balancing, servers within the solution must be physically separated and the degree to which you are able to do this determines how bullet proof your solution is:

• Multiple Racks ensure that a solution will not go offline as a result of a very isolated incident and must be employed on every solution as a minimum.
• Multiple Suites are powered by separate power feeds and splitting servers across them results in minor power outages having no affect on the uptime of a solution.
• Using Multiple Datacentres provides the best level of resilience provided by a single dedicated hosting provider. A popular “what if” used in the dedicated server industry is “what if a plane crashes into the datacentre?” – with correct configuration, splitting servers across multiple datacentres ensures a solution will continue to function even if this unlikely event occurs.

Layer 4 vs Layer 7 load balancing

The following features are consistent across both platforms
Methods – Round Robin, Weighted
Health Checking – TCP Connect
Persistence – IP Based
Other features – Multi racks / suites

There are some features however that are exclusive to Layer 7 load balancing
Methods – Least Connections, URL Parsing, HTTP Headers
Health checking – Ping, Simple HTTP GET
Persistence – Cookie Based
Other features – Multiple data centres, SSL offloading

UKFast managed backup features:

• Weekly full system state server backup
• Daily incremental server backup, including your system state
• Intelligent, burstable quota starting at 50GB per server and up to 200GB
• Option to choose customised managed backup
• Full management of your server backup solution and completion of the recovery process

How do UKFast’s burstable quotas work?
Your standard backup quota is 50GB and UKFast allows this quota to burst to 200GB. We are enabling you to actually use 300% more space than this. The caveat is that your usage MUST fall below 50GB once in any 14 day period. Should your total usage not fall below this 50GB limit in any given 14 day period, your backups will fail and it will no longer be possible to restore your data. In this situation, your Account Manager will contact you to establish exactly what your required quota is and to discuss how to put this in place.
The intelligent, burstable regime ensures a flexible quota sufficient to provide ongoing and uninterrupted backup for 87% of the UKFast client base.

Customising your backups, it’s the intelligent choice:
Choose a time that suits your server usage – if your quietest time is 4pm, then that’s when we’ll run your backups.

By customising your backups to only include the relevant files and folders, you gain several benefits:

• You will be able to backup ALL files which YOU consider to be mission critical.
• The time taken to complete a backup is significantly reduced – any impact on your server whilst your data is backed up is minimised.
• The time to restore data is significantly reduced – the quicker data can be restored to your server, the sooner you will be online and fully functional.

Top Tips on backups

• Tell UKFast what time is best for you for backups to run to reduce the impact on your server
• Nominate which specific folders and files you wanted to be backed up to ensure your quota is not reached and backups run successfully
• Take a dedicated backup server to increase the flexibility of backup implementation
• Request cross datacentre backup for increased resilience and business continuity

Restrictions and limitations

• Backup is restricted to a weekly retention period.
• Incremental backups are based on time stamps. If you move files into an existing directory or move a whole directory into the backup fileset after a Full backup, those files will probably not be backed up by an Incremental save because they will have old dates.

UKFast and Sale Sharks with the students

Neil Lathwood, UKFast’s IT Director and I visited Ashton-on-Mersey School earlier this week to give a helping hand on their ICT taster day. Basically, the plan was to get this group of 35 14-15 year olds hooked on the idea of doing the Level 2 ICT Diploma in years 10 and 11.

After brief introductions from Jim Seymour and Aaron Saxton (Head of ICT @ AoM), I gave a 10 minute introduction to UKFast taking the students on a journey from where the Internet evolved from and what UKFast does, to specific case studies about the biggest internet successes and how young people are involving themselves in the evolution of the internet and making money from it.

“Over 21,000 UK 15-16 year olds are making £60,000 a year online – almost 3 times average salary”

We had 3 separate workshops running through the day aimed at getting the students to think about different areas of UKFast’s business:

• “Corporate event” – Plan a corporate event to invite a selection of UKFast’s top performing staff and a number of big clients to.
• “Sharks” – Consider the section of the Sale Sharks site aimed at young people and come up with idea of content and a look to improve it
• “wwwdot” – Come up with an idea of a website you are going to establish that will make you an internet millionaire – consider costs involved in setting it up as well as your unique selling point and how it will be a success.

Each group worked together all day and were given marks based on team work, innovative ideas and quality of the presentations.

The highlight of the day was the arrival of Sale Shark’s Charlie Hodgson and Lee Thomas to judge the best 3 teams of the day’s “wwwdot” presentations. The guys were really impressed with the ideas that the students came up with and how they plan to make the businesses a success. The lucky winners came up with “Viewpoint” – a website combining the best bits of Youtube and Facebook and all in a single place. For their efforts they are going to be special guests at a Sale Sharks fixture later in the season!

The ICT diploma is fantastic to be a part of and knowing that we are inspiring the next generation of Internet Entrepreneurs and Technology Wizards gives us all great satisfaction.

It may seem strange for an internet business to be supporting the idea of offline marketing spend but having just returned from an extremely successful E-commerce Expo at Earl’s Court, we’ve been reminded once again of the value of face-to-face interaction.

UKFast Managed Hosting at E-commerce Expo

There is no doubt that online ad spend is the best arena for businesses to dip their toe in the water and scale up budget as results increase. However, in terms of building relationships, nothing comes close to meeting potential clients in person.

The type of product or service you sell will in most cases dictate the best channels to market but if you are looking to procure a recurring service in today’s climate don’t you want to get to know the provider as well as possible before signing on the bottom line.

UKFast Managed Hosting team

At UKFast we’ve always encouraged existing and prospective clients to come up and meet us, take a tour of the data centres and then enjoy a night at the Sale Sharks. So, for those who are able to make the trip, there are three different environments in which to discover more about our business and our culture.

Getting people to come to us is one thing but meeting at an event – especially an industry exhibition allows any company to give an indication of their people, services and unique ingredients to a huge audience.

Meeting clients at the Expo

Over two days we managed to speak in person to over a thousand businesses and begin to build a relationship with each and every one of them. Not only that, but it acts as a tremendous opportunity for face-to-face experience that helps to grow skills within our team.

Those who can see through the fog of recession are able to take advantage of the situation. With so many people choosing to tighten the purse strings, the opportunities to reach out and touch more potential clients are out there for those willing to fill the void.

However, proving that no businesses can do without any advertising, notoriously ad shy Google has just launched a major global campaign.

The search engine giant is famous for building its empire with very little advertising. It was a rare example of a unique product that does an excellent job and therefore ‘sells itself’. But now the “Gone Google” multi media campaign is an attempt to steal away Microsoft business applications customers.

The campaign line “Gone Google” refers to the 1.7m businesses that the company claims have embraced its services, the Guardian reports.

“It is the first and very highly visible integrated ad campaign that we have run,” said Dave Armstrong, head of marketing for Google Enterprise for Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Gone Google is a concept that we are at a tipping point where you [businesses] need to move to a new model. Look at how Google has brought products to the enterprise market, we have done it differently than some of the other competitors.”

The ad campaign reflects the fact that even the Google brand name is not enough when venturing into new markets. Google apps are not its core search engine offering, so users’ acceptance is not guaranteed. They need to be convinced.

Ironically, much of Google’s advertising campaign will use traditional media, such as print and billboard.

In a similar vein, UKFast has been embracing more traditional marketing avenues recently. As a web hosting business we do most of our advertising online. However, last week UKFast was the main attraction at Ecommerce Expo in London.

The show represented a significant investment in offline marketing for us but it was a major success for the business. We met face to face with around 2,000 potential clients and partners of the future and the UKFast brand will certainly resonate even more amongst those engage in ecommerce going forward.

What our attendance at Ecommerce Expo 2009 shows is that when planned and targeted, offline marketing can still be very effective.

It’s great to glance down the list of  fast moving and successful companies, especially in today’s economic climate and recognise that there are lots of businesses in the UK that simply refuse to be slowed down by recession.

Naturally, there will be a few who sit in what might be described as recession proof industries (if they really exist) but there is no trend that shows every business within that industry appearing in the list.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 represents the businesses that lead their industries, those who pioneer the way forward and dare to achieve more than the rest. Knowing a selection of those represented, one thing appears in the DNA of each company – a passion for delivering and competing within their industry.

It’s great for team morale to know that UKFast is one of the four fastest growing tech companies in the North of England. We’re also proud to see a number of our clients within the list. Our success relies heavily on theirs, so it’s an honour to be placed alongside them. Many congratulations to each and every one of them.

UKFast was originally set up because Lawrence Jones experienced sub-standard hosting in his previous business. A gap in the hosting market was there for someone who combined first class technology with industry-leading customer care. We have never forgotten what it is to be a business that relies on its hosting.

With our clients growing around us, we now find ourselves as a company that has gone from little more than 50 in the team in 2008 to 100 going into 2010. Sitting amongst our clients in the Sunday Times TechTrack 100 means we are once again going through the same experiences they are.

Sharing these experiences is another way to deliver great service.

Last week, when presenting as a finalist at an awards day, the panel asked me a question we are often asked. ‘Growing from a five person business to 25 is one of the big leaps, but 50 to 100, that’s another challenge altogether – how have you coped with this?’

A business that has the right blend of culture and structure will always ‘cope’ with growth. At UKFast, growth has not been a forced decision but a necessity. We are lucky to have always nurtured a strong culture but going into 2009 we also recognised that a business structure to complement growth is crucial.

If you put the processes in place to shape a team member’s day for maximum enjoyment and productivity, it means that they will give 100 per cent and this commitment will go a long way. Taking this approach also means that training falls in line with process and this allows a business to get new recruits up to speed very quickly.

As a hosting provider, we recognise that we are an element of every client’s process driven structure. Our service contributes to their ability to achieve 100 per cent and because we know just how valuable that is to a growing business, we’re able to deliver with conviction.

Despite all the top flight football teams, cricket, ice hockey and rugby league in the Manchester area, Guinness Premiership outfit Sale Sharks match days are officially the best hospitality for meeting real industry heavyweights.

It seems that the difference is the shape of the ball on the field. Rugby attracts the decision makers of business more than football, or any other sport for that matter, and its hospitality costs less. So investing in Sharks hospitality delivers an unmatched ROI.

And it’s not just about getting an opportunity to meet Manchester’s boardroom fillers. Hospitality at the Sharks is legendary for providing a fantastic experience. In addition to prime match seats in the corporate box, attendees receive a three-course meal in the exclusive Insider Suite and, unlike football, get the chance to meet the players after the game.

UKFast is the new main sponsor of the Sale Sharks and as such will be enjoying 28 hospitality seats per home game for the coming season. It all kicks-off this Friday against current champions Leicester Tigers.

UKFast clients can select a match at which to join us by fill in a hospitality form here:http://pdf.ukfast.net/sharks_fixtures09-10.pdf. Meanwhile, for more information on UKFast’s sponsorship of the Sale Sharks visit: http://www.ukfast.co.uk/sale-sharks-press-area.html.

Traditionally, change is brought about by ideas, contributions, team work and communities. This is no less so in IT.

Just a few years ago software and applications were seen as magical entities and few people understood how they worked. This lack of understanding inevitably led to problems like users being locked into applications that vendors no longer promoted, even while they continued to collect support fees.

But now, as our lives plunge into the digital, people are more understanding of how applications work and in turn more able and willing to contribute to the science of IT. Today online organisations and businesses have a vision of how they want things to work, they want more flexibility online and are willing to fund the building of bespoke software.

UKFast puts 25 per cent of all resources into its R&D department to develop software and applications. Most of our systems are written in-house by the UKFast R&D community, to the exact specifications that our business needs.

Community is how Linux has developed over the years and with Google opening its speeding the web applications to the scrutiny of programmers we see a level of outsider contribution here too.

Facebook and other social networking sites have allowed third parties to create add-on applications which contribute to the level of customer enjoyment. But what about those companies that charge us for licence fees and bar us from personal modifications – well even they’re on the turn, it seems.

Microsoft has over the past year, donated code to PHP, offered support to the Apache Foundation, and it made its first code submission to the Linux kernel just last month.

There have also been suggestions of more schools and workplaces adopting open source in their organisations to cut license costs. It’s long been part of the battle that the world’s kids are introduced to Microsoft at a young and pliable age – so many don’t even know there is an alternative.

So maybe the future is different. Will we see IT lessons shift from creating a PowerPoint presentation to building the programme itself? I certainly hope so!

Anyone with a great idea for an online business can get the chance to benefit from six months of free hosting from the UK’s fastest hosting provider by entering the UKFastTrack. However, they must apply by August 31st, that’s just weeks away.

We have already had many applications from entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas for online businesses and we are getting very excited about picking out five finalists in September.

For those of you who are not totally clued up on the UKFastTrack here are the competition details:

Five lucky finalists will be selected in September from all of the applications received by Aug 31st 09. These finalists will be given a super-fast UKFast SEO Server and associated hosting support for free for six months. That means £15,000 worth of free hosting infrastructure to help the online entrepreneurs to get their ideas off the ground.

After six months, the winner will be the business that enjoys the largest growth over the duration of the competition and their prize will be a further six months free hosting with UKFast.

If you have a winning idea for an online business don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to get industry-leading hosting for free. Visit the UKFastTrack web page to apply now.

Finalists will benefit from using the UKFast SEO Server. This is a bespoke server designed to deliver consistently rapid speed. Speed is vital to success online because it delivers high Google rankings and happy customers. And having a faster website than your competitors can make all the difference to your business. Find out more about the SEO Server and how it can help you business to succeed.