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Enterprise Issue 5 - Winter 2012/13 Welcome Welcome to issue 5 of Zen Internet’s Enterprise Newsletter. 2012 has proved to be another landmark year for Zen. We’ve opened a state-of-the-art North West Data Centre, experienced growth in our business and won even more awards. Yet we’re still not resting on our laurels – we’re building new services, upgrading existing ones, and investing to Enterprise ensure that we stay at the top of our game. Highlights In September we won our ninth Best 10Mbps to 35Mbps. We’re expanding our ISP Award from PC Pro magazine, with portfolio of Connectivity, Voice, Hosting incredible scores of 97% for customer and Colocation services, and we have Business Voice Portfolio: support, 96% for reliability, 84% for value ambitious plans to improve our core Telephony services that work for you for money and 89% for speed in the service network further. Zen believes in planning and reliability survey – with a staggering for tomorrow’s business landscape, and Introducing the Greater 98% of respondents stating that they would that’s demonstrated by the opening of Manchester Data Centre: recommend Zen. We’ve also maintained our £4 million Greater Manchester Data New 1350m2 Tier 2 Data Centre our Which? Recommended Broadband Centre, which we believe is one of the Provider status for the fourteenth time most advanced and energy-efficient Our Connectivity in a row and followed that up with our facilities in the UK. Through a programme Value Proposition: first Which? Recommended Home Phone of continuous enhancement, we’re building Delivering state-of-the-art capabilities to every enterprise Service Provider title, with glowing four a platform that will enable businesses and five-star endorsements. Finally, Zen of any size to capitalise on cloud-based has been named finalist in the Comms applications and services. The Communications National Awards for Best Channel ISP, whilst Data Bill: In the following pages we’ll go into our MD, Richard Tang, has been awarded Our Position more detail on our product lines, our Technology Entrepreneur of the Year at the investments, and the factors that make Zen North West Entrepreneur of the Year Awards different from other providers. Whatever for the investment in our Data Centre. services we deliver, we bring to them In the meantime, we’ve continued our the same values of great service, strong expansion of Fibre Optic Broadband support and excellent reliability that have services, and doubled speeds for existing made Zen the successful, award-winning customers. Our Ethernet in the First Mile company it is today. (EFM) service has also gone up from

Our mission is to provide the best ISP service in the UK.

Richard Tang, Managing Director The Official Opening of our new Data Centre by the Mayor and Mayoress of Rochdale with Richard Tang That’s Zen thinking BusinessIntroducing Voice EFM: Portfolio: TelephonyEthernet inservices the First that Mile work for you

In November, we launched the latest addition to our Wholesale portfolio. This is good news for competition, business connectivity product line: Ethernet in the First but we had to think carefully before selecting our chosen Mile (EFM). As the name suggests, EFM delivers an partner. While rival carriers have advantages, our decision Ethernet Leased Line service, but instead of requiring to go with BT Wholesale came down to two key points. costly Ethernet Fibre it uses multiple copper pairs to cover Firstly, they have implemented a fully resilient EFM/ the space between the network and the premises. This Ethernet architecture which is dedicated to business traffic. means that EFM brings all the benefits of a conventional Secondly, there is no ambiguity as to where the service is Ethernet service, including guaranteed, symmetrical available or how long it will take to deliver. bandwidth and business class Service Level Agreements Other suppliers we evaluated claimed that their EFM service (SLAs), but typically at a 40% lower cost. What’s more, EFM was resilient because it uses multiple copper pairs, but solutions can be delivered within 30 working days – less while this does mean a graceful degradation in available than half the time. bandwidth should a pair fail, the rest of the infrastructure The current Zen EFM product offers bandwidth speeds has numerous points of failure because it is shared with low up to 10Mbps which will be increasing to 35Mbps in May, cost consumer services. We don’t consider this ‘business though the actual speed you can expect depends on the grade’. Ourdistance Business from Voice the Portfolionearest EFMproducts enabled go from Point strength of Presence options for business continuity. As your business grows, Of course, fibre-broadband services are a viable alternative, to(POP) strength, to the providing premises. organisations There are currently of all sizes 720 with EFM a POP’sfull you can add additional lines in a fraction of the time it would so how does EFM compare? Well, it all comes down to how portfoliofrom our of chosen telephony carrier, services BT Wholesale, stretching covering all the way 60% from of UK take with a traditional ISDN service. However, Zen can also critical the connection is. EFM comes with a comprehensive linebusiness rental and premises. Broadband A program VoIP to of ISDN constant and SIP. expansion Whether will bring so much more to the table. SLA, including 24/7 UK support, a 7 hour target restore seeyou’re availability looking for improve business as time grade goes phone on. lines for remote time and 4 hour onsite hardware support. If connectivity workers or planning to make the A number of different Buildingis critical Better to your Voice company’s Services operations, EFM is the most most of SIP Trunking, carriers offer EFM Zenaffordable is serious and about cost-effective Business Voice. option. We’re continually our Business Voice as part of their investing in the products, support, new technologies and Portfolio services the core network that makes it all happen. However, we also can help you trim listen. Customers told us that they still wanted ISDN, either costs and ensure to continue with existing ISDN-based investments or while a smooth-running they made the transition to new SIP services. In response business. we launched ISDN30, setting new standards for business- Our Business Voice Portfolio provides grade ISDN. With 24/7 support as standard and the option to enterprises with truly tangible benefits. extend that to an end of next working day fix promise, easy Our SIP Trunking services give you transfers and competitive pricing. We offer the service on lower upfront and ongoing costs a twelve-month contract, with no call connection fees, per than traditional ISDN lines, fast second billing, competitive call rates and no minimum call provisioning and flexible phone spend. It’s free to transfer from your existing service, and numbers, which don’t have to be there is no downtime or number change involved in tied to a particular location, and the process.

2 Call - 0845 058 9222 Meanwhile, Business Talk SIP provides the best enterprise-class SIP product on the market. We know that, for all the advantages of SIP, some customers feel ISDN offers tried and tested reliability and security. At Zen, we understand this, and built our SIP Trunking product with both in mind. We know that robust connectivity is key to a successful deployment.

That’s why our services are based on our own Next Generation Network

platform, ensuring the and our same award-winning SIP platform. With levels of reliability as our Zen you can rest assured connectivity products. They are monitored and managed by nobody outside the company will abuse your service. a specialist team, working to ensure continuous availability, and where other providers might work with Tier 2 and even Choosing Zen for both Voice and Connectivity services Tier 3 networks, meaning they can’t guarantee a high enables companies to maximise cost-savings, and with quality of service, we partner only with Tier 1 carriers – low connection and monthly rental fees, calls billed on a those who own and operate their own networks, on their per second basis and free site to site calls for multi-site own terms. We know it works - we’ve been using SIP in- SIP customers, the financial advantages are clear. What’s house for the last five years! more, while it can replace existing analogue or ISDN lines, Business Talk SIP can also work in tandem with them. By Resilience, Reliability, Security moving your Voice and Connectivity services to Zen, you Our core network is fully resilient with multiple paths, and can also enjoy the advantages of having one supplier and we prepare for increases in usage with excess capacity. one point of contact. With over fifteen years of experience in IP-based services Put it all together, and our Business Voice Portfolio provides we also have the expertise to ensure that SIP-based calls market-leading services that can meet the needs of sound as good and are just as secure as ISDN or PSTN calls. any organisation. We not only link the SIP service user name and password to the IP range of the Zen connection used to make calls, but For more information, please contact us on use encrypted authentication between the connection 0845 058 9222 or email us at [email protected]

The Internet Telephony Services Providers’ Association (ITSPA) is the UK VoIP industry’s trade body, representing network operators, service providers and other businesses involved with the supply of VoIP services to business and residential customers.

Call - 0845 058 9222 Email - [email protected] 3 Product Guide Introducing the Greater Manchester Data Centre: New 1350m2 Tier 2 Data Centre May 1st saw the official opening of Zen’s new 1350m 2 Tier 2 Data Centre at our Rochdale HQ. Representing a £4 million investment, the Greater Manchester Data Centre proves Zen’s commitment to delivering the infrastructure we, our partners and our customers will need to make the most of the opportunities in web-based applications, online services and cloud computing.

It also enables us to extend the reach of enterprise Under the leadership of MD Richard Tang, Zen sees the Hosting and Colocation products to both larger Greater Manchester Data Centre as a key investment and smaller customers, with pricing as low as in the future. “We all know where IT services are £59 per month. heading - to the cloud - but in order to thrive, these Having completed phase one, we’re now filling the first services will need a stable platform, with strong 91 of an eventual 270 racks, the rest to be delivered security, robust connectivity, guaranteed power and through two more phases of development. The new business continuity. This makes the Data Centre a Data Centre typifies Zen’s approach to Internet crucial component. Pick the wrong Data Centre partner or a ‘broom cupboard’ server room, and you’re left with services: big features but from a company that’s applications your business can’t rely on. Do it right, small enough to care. With N+1 redundancy, meaning and you have an environment where everybody wins.” every core component of the Data Centre has at least one backup, cutting-edge Heating, Ventilation and Air That’s why Richard Tang and Zen are committed Conditioning Systems and a highly resilient power to delivering state-of-the-art facilities. Beyond architecture based on Euro-Diesel’s NO-BREAK KS the power and cooling architectures, we provide DRUPS, the new Data Centre goes above and beyond an infrastructure monitored 24/7 by automated Tier 2 Data Centre requirements. We’re able to provide management systems and an on-site team, plus halls 100% power, 99.97% cooling and 100% network SLAs. guarded by a 24-hour security team and CCTV.

4 Product Guide/Portfolio Overview Visit - www.zen.co.uk Diversely routed fibre-based connections ensure connectivity, whatever happens, while N+1 power, Heating, Ventilation and Cooling Systems guarantee our uptime to be up there with the industry’s best. Positioned just off the M62, the new Data Centre is highly accessible, but for those times when you can’t be there in person, we can provide a full Remote Hands service.

We know we’re not the only choice, either nationally or in the North West, however, we believe we’re better. We target a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) - a measure of Data Centre efficiency - of 1.6 where rivals typically only go as far as 1.8 to 2.0. In addition, our Diesel Rotary Uninterruptible Power Supply (DRUPS) are more efficient than conventional battery-based solutions, making our Data Centre more environmentally friendly too. The location is another strength, outside of the city centre but maintaining

good transport links and with facilities concentrated in the one place, not spread across multiple sites. All these factors give us an advantage when it comes to Hosting and Colocation – and that’s without factoring in our award-winning service and support.

Of course, reading about it is no substitute for seeing it, which is why we’d like to extend an invitation to tour our new facilities. Visit http://www.zen.co.uk/ business/hosting-and-domains/default/data-centre- book-a-tour.aspx to book a tour now. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, visit http://www.zen.co.uk/business/ default/data-centre-virtual-tour.aspx for a full virtual tour.

For more information, please contact us on 0845 058 9222 or email us at [email protected]

Call - 0845 058 9222 5 Our Connectivity Value Proposition: Delivering state-of-the-art capabilities to every enterprise

Over the last 17 years, Zen Internet has grown from a pioneering ISP into a company that provides the full range of Data, Voice and Hosting services to businesses across the UK, giving them the capabilities they need to communicate, collaborate and All About The Future pursue their long-term goals. Zen offers so much more than We already have a state-of-the-art Next Broadband or Hosting. We deliver the infrastructure businesses Generation Network, which is expanding UK- need to compete in a highly connected world. wide, deploying additional Points of Presence (POPs) directly into local exchanges, so that businesses everywhere can access it. We’ve Why Choose Zen? also invested £4 million in a new purpose-built Numerous awards and market-leading customer Data Centre, giving businesses a cost-effective feedback gives you some idea, but we put it alternative to housing their own IT. down to our core strengths and the differences that elevate Zen above other providers. We’ve had time to hone both our customer-focused We’re Pioneers service and our technical expertise, and we’re looking out for the long term. Zen was one of the earliest adopters of fibre technologies, and we remain a key partner for BT. Through our core network we can interconnect with every local telephone An Extensive Portfolio exchange, giving us the ability to offer services With IP VPN, Leased Line and Ethernet services nationwide and the capacity to deploy Fibre on top of ADSL and Fibre Optic Broadband, Zen Optic Broadband to almost 50% of premises delivers the full range of connectivity services, across the UK. ensuring organisations get the speed and bandwidth they need. A choice of value-add services, including Data Backup, Hosting and Managed Network Security, helps reduce the A Fairer Approach burden of maintenance and administration, We value our customers and we’re upfront in our while enterprise grade telephone, SIP Trunking terms and conditions about how our services and ISDN services enable businesses to work, and what customers can expect. We communicate more reliably and cost-effectively. provide live usage data and – unlike some other Our Hosting and Colocation services allow companies – we don’t throttle traffic. We believe organisations to use our state-of-the-art Data that our customers should get the speed and Centre rather than investing in their own. No other provider does so much so well. bandwidth they pay for.

6 Email - [email protected] Bringing Faster Fibre Expertise Service to theZen’s staff are the Enterprise best in the business. Over 25% : Zen provides 24/7 customer support without of our workforce are technical analysts based time limits or call scripts, just unlimited access New optionsin our UK service offering centre, and we adon’t rough believe in doubling of tospeed expert analysts. We take the same approach outsourcing support. We’ve also spent the last to pre-sales support for IP VPNs, Ethernet and We see Fibre Broadband isn’t as a the line between the premises and six years purpose-building IP VPN solutions for Leased Line products and work to provide fantastic opportunity, not just for us the road-side cabinet, the same isn’t leading brands, including National Tyres, Virgin businesses with the services they need, not but for business users too. Filling the true of FTTP. We’re seeing customers Games and East Midlands Airport. They view merely those we’d like to sell them. gap between DSL and Ethernet-based in commercial trials reaching Zen as a critical infrastructure provider. With services, it opens up a new world of download speeds that frequently awards from PC Pro, Which? and PC Advisor, cloud-based applications, remote exceed 90Mbps. we’re confident that we provide some of the best working through VPN, business-grade Connectivity and Hosting services in the UK, and At £70 per month for up to 100Mbps video conferencing and high-speed An Applications Platform our Voice, IP VPN and Colocation services are downstream and 15Mbps upstream, collaboration to smaller enterprises. developing to match. We engineer IP orVPN £95 solutions per month that for streamline a 30Mbps This could be revolutionary, enabling the costs and complexityupstream service,of managing we’re business aware organisations of all sizes to be more applications acrossthat ourWide Enterprise Area Networks. FTTP services By agile and efficient. providing secure,carry high-speed a premium, links but between in relation Zen alreadyIndependent offers FTTC (Fibre to the offices or companiesto comparable and their Ethernet customers, services, Cabinet) services in our Fibre Pro, partners or remotethey’re employees, surprisingly we canaffordable. enable And, Fibre OfficeZen and is Fibreprivately Office owned, Plus so we can invest capital even small organisationsas ever, they’re to take backed advantage up by ofZen’s products, offeringback into download the business, speeds expanding the network... the big newscloud-based applicationsfast, highly-resilient and converged core network,voice, of up to 40Mbpsand our with service upload portfolio speed for the long-term video and data andnetworks. our award-winning support and options of upwithout to 2 or short-term 10Mbps. During worries about shareholders,for enterprise customer service. April, FTTC willinvestors go faster or still,parent with companies. new For more information, please contact us on FTTP services will not be available options offering a rough doubling of is the launch0845 of 058 9222 or email us at [email protected] everywhere. BT sees FTTC handling speed to up to 80Mbps downstream business-grade fibre the bulk of fibre broadband in the UK, and 20Mbps upstream. These new covering up to 75% of connections, 80/20 fibre broadband services are broadband based on with FTTP taking the rest. This is available in any FTTC enabled area also a long-term project; it can take and existing 40Mbps customers can Fibre to the Premises up to 15 months for an exchange to easily upgrade. (FTTP) technology... be prepared for fibre. Still, it’s worth However, the big news for enterprise the wait. With the Fibre Enterprise is the launch of business-grade fibre and Fibre Enterprise Pro services broadband based on Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology. on board, we believe that we have the strongest portfolio of Here customers can expect download speeds of close to enterprise grade fibre-broadband products in the UK, and a 100Mbps to the office, with upload speeds of 15 or 30Mbps. hands-on experience of the technology that other providers While FTTC connections are limited by the length and quality of cannot match.

For more information, please contact us on 0845 058 9222 or email us at [email protected]

Email - [email protected] Visit - www.zen.co.uk 7 The Communications Data Bill: Our Position Zen Internet

Zen, like most other ISPs, Media and Civil Liberties groups, Zen Internet, an independent recognise the need for law enforcement authorities to be in Internet Service Provider (ISP), a position to act on criminal activity. However, the proposed has been delivering services to Communications Data Bill, scheduled for publication in January business and residential users in 2013, may go too far. Potentially, it acts as a ‘snooper’s charter’, the UK since 1995. providing excessive rights for the retention and access of data relating to personal and business activities online.

Should this Bill go through Parliament as it stands, ISPs will Led by founder and Managing have to collect and retain user data for a period of 12 months Director Richard Tang, Zen’s mission across a much broader range of services, including mobile is to provide the best ISP service phones, third-party email and social networking services. in the UK. Zen is committed to We’re not only required to retain data that we would investing in the latest technologies not otherwise retain for business purposes, but to capture and retain data about services we neither own nor operate. We understand why, but we also have legitimate concerns.

Asking Important Questions In the past, we’ve seen the views from medium and smaller ISPs ignored, but when these proposals have so profound an impact on us and our customers, we have a duty to provide input, ask important questions and represent the interests of our sector. We have participated in submissions from the trade associations ISPA and LiNX, and we’ll continue to do so. If you too are worried about the implications of this Bill, please contact your local MP, and look out for further information on our blog For more information, please contact us on and in this newsletter. 0845 058 9222 or email us at [email protected]

Zen Internet Sandbrook Park, Sandbrook Way, Rochdale OL11 1RY Tel: 0845 058 9222 Fax: 0845 058 9005 Email: [email protected] Web: www.zen.co.uk