Hostworks enters the SMB sector

Web hosting service provider, Hostworks Group has signed an agreement with reseller Activ Australia, opening a path to the local SMB market.

Through its partnership with Hostworks, Activ will provide SMBs with a range of dedicated and virtual application and server hosting services typically available only to corporate and enterprise markets.

Using Hostworks’ Managed Service and Software as a Service (SAAS) capabilities, Activ will offer a number of centrally-hosted virtual application services that include the full Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft Exchange with Outlook, SQL Server and Web Hosting.

Services will be delivered on a per-seat basis to the client’s desktop via private network or the Internet.

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

Hostworks traditional revenue stream came from enterprise application outsourcing, delivering business systems with guaranteed availability.

The ASX-listed web hosting service vendor, provides managed communication solutions to more than 600 small to medium-sized businesses, offering best-of- breed data, voice and application services to any location Australia-wide.

Marty Gauvin Hostworks managing director said Activ would aggregate sizeable demand under a single customer.

“The benefit is that we get a low-cost channel that is skilled and experienced in delivering products into a fragmented market. Activ gets the benefit of access to a service provider that can guarantee its customers the 99.95 per cent availability they require for their businesses,” he said.

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

Gauvin said Hostworks would use existing infrastructure to deliver these services for Activ. The Web hosting vendor deployed second generation Application Service Provision infrastructure last year and will leverage this to reach a much broader market through Activ, with minimal impact on the resources required to supply that demand.

Recently, Hostworks announced online real estate media company realestate.com.au had outsourced monitoring of its infrastructure and applications in Australia and Europe to Hostworks to support its global expansion.

realestate.com.au operates three data centres in Melbourne and one in England, housing Web servers that support its online property listing services.

Under the agreement Hostworks is providing monitoring services and initial support from its network operation centre for about 200 Web servers located in realestate.com.au data centres.

collaboration hostworks networking smb