Microsoft partner HubOne relaunches as cloud integrator

Microsoft-partner HubOne has transitioned its business from being a software developer to a cloud-only integrator.

HubOne no longer sells, supports or uses on-premise IT. For end-users that require on-premise services HubOne will refer them to other partners.

Launched in 2008 as a software developer, HubOne expanded to providing infrastructure and consulting services with a focus on Microsoft on-premise and online services.

HubOne no longer delivers things like Exchange on-premise," managing director Nick Beaugeard told CRN.

HubOne will instead work with customers to "first of all find a cloud strategy" and then get them to "move to the cloud where appropriate".

"It's all about helping customers build a cloud strategy and then execute that to deliver some real business value," he said.

"If there's an on premise way to do it we will actually hand that off to other partners," he said.

Beaugeard said his company's success with Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) drove him to change the business focus.

"We really started the process in October last year with our first BPOS customer. It occurred to me roughly around March [2010] the direction that I wanted to consider. So from March to the end of June we set about implementing the changes," he said.

Microsoft helped financially with the transition, said Beaugeard.

In March, Microsoft announced its plans to offer partners $1,000 for each eligible Microsoft Online Service subscription of 25 seats or more.  Microsoft Online Service includes BPOS. 

"Absolutely the assistance we got from Microsoft was one of the key things," Beaugeard said today.  

Next page: HubOne signs new vendor partners and switches off last server.

Microsoft will remain as HubOne's "anchor" vendor partner - not just for BPOS but also for Windows Azure.

The company has also partnered with Nivio cloud desktop and Amazon EC2.

"We're absolutely about public cloud, we're not hosting things ourselves. I think it's important to leverage what the 'whales' in the cloud are doing rather than try and go build your own infrastructure. Which is the same way traditional resellers worked anyway," he said.

Beaugeard said future vendor partners will be driven by customers. 

"We're doing a big drive into a number of customer verticals...helping customers build a strategy and then using those strategies ourselves to decide which of the vendors we work with. Some are good, some are bad. I want that to be led by our customers," Beaugeard said.

Internal transformation

In the process of changing the business model HubOne shifted its internal process to the cloud.

Beaugeard said that he was "proud to turn off the last on premise server at 10pm on Thursday 30 June.

"We like to walk our talk rather than just talk it. So we have no internal servers whatsoever. All of our systems run on the cloud today. It was a fairly chunky IT transformation," he said.

HubOne moved everything from accounts to CRM to messaging onto cloud platforms.

"We had on premise Exchange, we do software development so we had a Microsoft Team Foundation Server, a bunch of big SQL servers, our CRM system on premise, and our accounting system and ERP.

"We had to find solutions to move all of that up to the cloud and that included going with Microsoft Dynamics online and taking our website to Windows Azure."