The technology
"It's not so much the technology we use - that's available to everybody. It's how we use it," says Nolan. Mbits tends to shy away from the market leader in any technology area and go for up-and-comers that can achieve similar goals with cheaper technology.
For example, Mbits uses Juniper over Cisco for networking, and vWorkspace from Provision Networks over Citrix.
Nolan chose to use LeftHand SANs before the vendor was acquired by HP last year and chose Syferlock over RSA for two-factor authentication.
"We spend a lot of time picking products that provide a very good price point to clients," says Nolan. "With a lot of large vendors the licensing models have become too costly. You have to look at other products. Otherwise you'd never grow because you're always spending on capital."
The Syferlock solution provides authentication at a fraction of the cost of RSA tokens, he adds.
However, using second-tier or lower vendors involves engineers researching companies, taking time to test products and even liaising with the vendors' developers directly to troubleshoot an issue.
The US-based Syferlock hadn't integrated its technology with Juniper's until Mbits requested the feature for its own use.
"They sell it around the world now," he says.
While Mbits' engineers do their best, it doesn't always work out perfectly. They tried out Virtual Iron but decided not to go with it because "a few core elements concerned us".
The experience with LeftHand SANs was "not all beer and skittles" either, says Nolan.
Mbits tests all vendors' products to see how well they work "because vendors like to exaggerate", says Nolan. He adds that vendors and distributors have helped out by lending equipment and giving extensions to trials so they can properly test products.
"Ingram have been great - they will lend us stuff to play with for 60 to 90 days. Juniper is the same."
It's all about the people
Nolan brought with him lessons learnt from his time at Ipex. The company structure he describes as "me and everyone else". Employees speak to him directly and are empowered to make decisions on the company's behalf when dealing with customers. "The decision process is very quick," says Nolan.
If Mbits landed another big deal it would create a separate department; Nolan believes in the "seven plus seven" theory which posits that managing more than seven people at a time is not effective.
Nolan built Mbits on two main investments: forging a technology solution that was robust, flexible and yet affordable; and hiring the best people he could find. He says, without pause, the best thing he has done in setting up his business was to employ good people.
"Each one of these guys has an established track record in an area of expertise. All of us have come out of this market and are known in this market," says Nolan. Some employees Nolan had met before; others were found through a recruitment agency. Surprisingly, all have at some time worked for Ipex, Volante or Commander.
Although the company has only been around for three years, it has already gone through four staff. The biggest problem is finding people suited to a small business.
"It's immensely difficult to find good people with the right attitude. It can take from one month to four or five [to find a new staff member]. It's really frustrating.
"I have a very high expectation of individuals. I expect them to behave like I behave. It's been a huge learning experience for me," says Nolan. "People need to be technically competent, customer focused and have the right attitude - be open to new ideas."
Most of the technicians are self-managed and are responsible for service delivery to their customers. Nolan says he is comfortable devolving power to the individuals "because everyone is a known quantity" in terms of their experience and reputation. "Here the person in charge of the account has the power to make decisions."
Nolan's wife Mywanwy works in HR, accounts and as the office manager. She worked in HR at Kaz on the Defence contract.
Staff take part in a profit-sharing model which distributes 10 percent of profits among all staff. However, for the first two years Nolan has fed profit back into the business, and plans to do it again for the next two.
The flat structure and low overheads mean clients get a lot of say over how their service is delivered, without overpaying for the privilege. "And the clients like that," says Nolan.
"Having a small company focus on the agency means it can basically get what it wants."
Picking a distributor
When Eugene Nolan was looking for a storage solution, he settled on a niche SAN vendor called LeftHand. LeftHand's products are built around a nodal model that claims to make adding more storage relatively painless. They also cost less than big-name vendors' hardware.
Nolan reviewed not just the technology but the vendor itself. The company seemed to have reached a critical mass, was heading in the right direction and because it was hardware independent it would "be OK" even if it was bought.
Nolan considered EMC's Clariion range but couldn't justify the cost. "They are great products, but great price tags as well," says Nolan.
The prices of the SANs were increased after LeftHand was acquired by HP earlier this year. HP has also ended its agnostic status - HP virtual storage is based on open standards, but not its physical storage.
Nolan says he is happy to stick with LeftHand for the time being.
Picking the right software can also take time. Mbits' engineers have experience with VMware, Citrix, Parallel, and Microsoft Hypervisor. "They all have advantages and disadvantages," says Nolan.
Parallels Virtuoso is a better fit sometimes than VMware, which "has one fundamental flaw - if you have 50 VDIs in a box they all have to have anti-virus" programs running in each instance, says Nolan, which slows down the hosting servers.
However, Virtuoso only requires one anti-virus per container, but every virtual machine has to have the same operating system as the base container. "You have to map [the technology] to the customer's needs," says Nolan.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
