Life, Clouds and Servers....straight from the RackRack Packwelcome to the rack pack

Well we’ve decked the Halls, counted the Lord’s a Leaping, replaced the lights and are now getting ready to unwind and enjoy the festive season. But before we do, it is with great pleasure that we present you with this, the second, small and perfectly formed, edition of Rack Pack.

As we gently head to 2013, provided we get past the 21st of course, we should reflect on what has been a quite incredible year for good old Blighty.

HM Queen managed 60 years on the throne. After 76 long, hard and agonising years of waiting Andy Murray finally managed to smile. Team GB and Paralympics GB managed to make an entire Nation smile. Europe’s Ryder Cup team managed to make an entire host nation cry and Emeli Sande managed to appear on our TV sets every day. Apparently you can read all about it.

And you can read all about us now. Packed tighter than Mary Berry’s Plum Duff, more enchanting than a John Lewis snowman and with more verve than a Louis and Flavia foxtrot, this edition brings you the latest news from across the Group...enjoy!

Shining through the cloudGroup posts strong set of half year results

iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM) announced a positive set of consolidated half yearly results for the period ended 30 September 2012 boosted by adoption of cloud computing.

The financial highlights were: 29% growth in revenue to £19.9m; 66% rise in pre-tax profits to £4.9m; adjusted EBITDA growth of 51% to £7.6m; and cashflow from operations increased by 54% to £6.4m.

The Group also announced plans to add another 1486 m² (16,000 ft²) of capacity to its data centre in Maidenhead to ensure the continued supply of high quality data centre space. This will be fitted out to a high specification over the next 12 months.

Operational highlights for the previous six months included the purchase of three web hosting companies, including Melbourne Server Hosting in Manchester, and the investment in a high-speed, resilient UK fibre network connecting iomart’s seven data centre locations.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “This has been another excellent trading

period for iomart, delivering substantial growth both organically and through successful acquisitions. Trading in the second half of the year has begun well as the trend to outsource more and more services and infrastructure into the cloud accelerates. We continue to invest in our skills, product sets and infrastructure to deliver an increasing range and depth of cloud services and expect to continue the growth we have recently enjoyed. We therefore look forward with confidence.”

The full announcement can be viewed on the London Stock Exchange website or on the iomart Group website

www.iomart.com

www.iomart.com DEC/JAN 2012IssUE 2

www.iomart.com

in the rack thiS iSSue!

“We are investing millions of pounds over the next decade to give iomart one of the fastest and most resilient fibre networks of any cloud computing company in the UK.”

Angus MacSween, CEO iomart Group plc

29% INCREASE in Revenue

66% PROFIT Increase

51% EBITDA Growth

54% INCREASE in Cashflow

• Shining through the cloud .................................. 1

• and the ServerS went in 2 by 2 hurrah! hurrah! ...................................2

• with a little help from my friendS ....................................................2

• iomart raceS into the deloitte technology faSt 500 ..............................2

• do what you love, and create a new future ...................................................3

• we are moSt amuSed .........................................3

• do you have a network So Slow it hertz? ............................................ 4

• hoStS aloud .................................................... 4

• it’S a tangled web we weave .......................................................5

• we hear you! ...................................................5

• google Street view putS melbourne on the map ........................................5

• magnum force..................................................5

• who’S the daddy? .............................................5

• iomart awardS ................................................6

• rackpack roarS into action with pagetiger .......................................6

• the hoStS with the moSt ....................................6

iomart made its interim statement on the day that severe flooding hit North Wales. One of the three acquisitions it announced was the North Wales web hosting company Hosting UK (registered as Internet Engineering Limited). Hosting UK’s data centre is in the town of st Asaph, Denbighshire, which suffered some of the worst of the flooding. The data centre is based on the St Asaph Business Park which is away from town centre and on a hill.

Phil Parry, managing director of Hosting UK, said: “Thankfully we weren’t affected by the flooding but it’s terrible to see the impact on those that were. We hope that everyone affected in the area is able to recover from this.”

Hosting UK has been providing internet services for over 10 years having been originally formed from a successful consultancy that provided IT and internet consultancy services to clients that included HBOS, Pilkington Glass

and Everton FC.

Of becoming part of iomart Group, Phil said: “This is a very positive step for Hosting UK. As part of a larger family of companies Hosting UK will continue to deliver the highest levels of internet services while offering customers access

and the ServerS went in 2 by 2 hurrah! hurrah!New acquisition escapes severe flooding

iomart Group was ranked 455 in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2012, the list of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in EMEA.

Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over five years. iomart Group plc grew 312 percent during this period.

CEO Angus MacSween said, “We are delighted to have been recognised in the Technology Fast 500. It’s a reflection of the fact that more and more organisations are choosing iomart to design, deliver and deploy their IT infrastructure. We have just invested in a new high speed fibre optic network which will deliver the most secure and scalable hosting our customers’ need, particularly if they are moving into the Cloud.”

Several iomart Group customers including Maxymiser, the global expert in multivariate testing and global travel search site Skyscanner, also featured in the Fast 500 EMEA list.

“iomart Group plc and the other 2012 Technology Fast 500 winners forged ahead in a challenging economic environment to realize exceptional growth,” said David Halstead, Deloitte United Kingdom and partner in charge of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme.” We commend iomart Group for this impressive accomplishment.”

iomart raceS into the deloitte technology faSt 500 Not as cool as Indianapolis but we’ll take it

with a little help from my friendSEasyspace helps new UK businesses get online

Easyspace is offering an exclusive start-up package to all new businesses that register for incorporation with Companies House.

The Easyspace Newstart offer includes web hosting, a professional email service plus a .eu domain name.

More than 400,000 new companies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland register their details at Companies House every year. Companies registering between now and 31 March 2013 will be offered the Newstart package for an initial annual fee of just £4.99.

Sarah Haran, managing director of Easyspace, said: “Launching a new business in the current economic climate is a big challenge so we are providing a cost-effective start-up package that makes it much easier for new starts to get online and reach out to the huge potential customer base on the Continent.”

According to the latest progress report from the .eu registry, EURid, .eu domain name registrations in Q3 of 2012 grew by 7.4% year on year to 3.67 million registered domain names.

“.eu registrations have risen steadily during 2012, with the Q3 results supporting our sustainable growth targets,” said EURid’s General Manager, Marc Van Wesemael. “During tough economic times, doing business online becomes ever more attractive. I see .eu’s growth as evidence of this trend across Europe.”

As part of its campaign to help UK businesses target customers in the European Union, Easyspace is also offering FREE .eu domain name registration with all web hosting packages until December 31 2012.

Easyspace is one of the largest ICANN accredited domain name registrars and web hosting companies in the UK. It provides reliable and secure web hosting for thousands of new businesses and recently sponsored the startup summit, a not-for-profit event in Edinburgh to provide advice and support to entrepreneurs.

To access the Newstart exclusive offer visit www.easyspace.com/newstart and login with your Companies House number.

www.iomart.com

Rack Pack Issue 2. December/January 2012

Melbourne Server Hosting was proud to be at the presentation of the Jubilee Time Capsule (JTC) to the Queen.

The JTC is the world’s largest online history project and is a 150 GB online collection of videos, photos and text from 37,000 people across 66 countries reflecting on Her Majesty’s 60 year reign. Amongst the contributors were HRH Prince Harry, HRH Princess Eugenie, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, and ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius. Melbourne’s servers hosted the content.

Melbourne Brand Manager Rajesh Joshi and Commercial Manager Steve Allan attended a ceremony at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London at which the Queen was presented with a Samsung tablet containing the top 60 memories.

Rajesh said: “It’s hard to believe that something we’ve been working on over the last year has now been presented to the Queen. It’s a huge honour and it also represents something that’s one of our core values: trust. We’re humbled really, that, as a team of young-ish, northern(-ish) geeks, we’ve been trusted with delivering

the hosting for a project on behalf of one the oldest institutions in the world.”

Melbourne Server Hosting was selected by Manchester software developer Capsool to provide the hosting for the JTC. Melbourne put together a high-redundancy private cluster in its secure data centres using enterprise-class Dell servers to provide the reliability, security and scalability needed by the project. Melbourne also provided multiple backups in its separate disaster-recovery facility.

Paul Carruthers, Managing Director of Capsool, explained: “When it came to choosing partners we needed companies that were similarly imaginative, completely trustworthy and technically first-rate. That’s why we recruited Melbourne Server Hosting to the project. After we’d spoken to them, we didn’t need to speak to anyone else.”

Rajesh added: “Huge thanks have to go to our support team at Melbourne, who helped design and provision the servers that hosted the Jubilee Time Capsule. While it was treated with the same love and care as all our customers get, it’s great to demonstrate

that the platform experienced 100% uptime – which is exactly what we aim to offer to all customers.”

The JTC will now be known as the Diamond (re)Collection, becoming a permanent part of the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. All 80,000 contributions will remain online in perpetuity.

Easyspace has been featuring Q & As with some of the stars on the blogging and online world to give customers insight into setting up their own web-based ventures. The latest interview was with Chris Guillebeau, the author of The $100 Startup – a book about leading a life of adventure, meaning and purpose, while at the same time earning a good living. Chris is in the process of visiting every country in the world. Here’s a snippet of their chat:

Q. So far you have visited 189 out of 193 countries. What resources do you use for your “mobile office” while travelling?

I’m pretty basic. Everything is run on a single MacBook Pro. I try to keep as much data as possible in the cloud so I can work from anywhere. My small team and I use a combination of Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Docs to share information. Most of the development we’ve done is WordPress-based. In other words, the simpler, the better.

Q. One way you earn money is by producing “unconventional products” – including ebooks such as “Become A Travel Hacker”. What advice would you give to somebody wanting to write an ebook?

Again, it’s very basic. For the guides I work with a great designer who formats them to look nice. Far more than focusing on technical issues, I’d encourage someone who wants to write an ebook to focus on creating strong content that meets a clear need or solves a problem for their intended audience.

Q. Leaving a 9-to-5 job and launching a startup business can be very risky – what advice would you give to a person who is considering doing this?

I’d ask them to take a hard look at their perception of risk. Could it be that remaining in a traditional job while the world continues to change, bypassing opportunities to take responsibility for one’s own career, is actually much riskier?

Q. For somebody wanting to start an online business, what advice would you give about web design, email subscribers, social media etc?

These problems are easy to solve: just ask Google. I do think design is important and I do believe email subscribers are the most valuable asset many businesses in the new economy

can maintain. However, I still think it’s more important to focus on some core issues of value: what really matters? How are you changing the world—at least a small part of the world—with your business idea? When you go to bed at night, is it with a sense of satisfaction and achievement, feeling tired but eager for another day?

To read the full interview with Chris and other useful insights go to the Easyspace blog http://blog.easyspace.com/

do what you love, and create a new futureThe $100 Startup

we are moSt amuSedMelbourne hosts the Jubilee Time Capsule

www.iomart.com

Issue 2. December/January 2012Rack Pack

3

hoStS aloudiomart Hosting helps Decibel make a noise

Decibel Technology, a leading software specialist for web development and website management, has partnered with iomart Hosting to provide website owners with a secure and resilient hosting platform,

with extra value ‘pay what you use’ services, all at the click of a button.

Built on a highly scalable cloud infrastructure from iomart Hosting, Decibel Technology’s new managed service gives businesses of all sizes simple ‘point and click’ provisioning of a hosting account and are billed only for what resource they have used and when. The managed hosting service also provides ‘burstable’ resource on demand for occasions when extra power is needed, for example at peak holiday booking times or the Christmas retail season.

Decibel’s hosting package has been designed specifically to address the industry trend of website owners having to forecast the amount of resource required to run their websites and pay for it, irrespective of whether the capacity is used or not.

“Decibel’s managed hosting is designed simply to put our customers in full control of their website, to ensure it is operating at all times at optimum performance,” said Ben Harris, CEO, Decibel Technology. “Hosting is often expensive, inflexible and complicated, so we designed a managed service package that removes static costs, gives customers point and click provisioning and provides burstable resource when they need it, in real-time. iomart Hosting is a best in class provider and a natural delivery partner for Decibel Technology clients.”

The Decibel Technology hosting solution through iomart Hosting is a highly resilient, secure and scalable solution run on an industry leading VMware platform. Customers are provided with 24/7 monitoring and management and a 100% uptime service Level Agreement (SLA). Decibel Technology provides clients with dedicated monitoring, charts of server usage and email updates of any minor or significant changes.

Sarah Haran, managing director of iomart Hosting, said: “iomart Hosting has a long history of supporting innovative companies in the software and applications market and we’re delighted that Decibel Technology has turned to us to provide the highly scalable cloud infrastructure they need to give their clients secure yet affordable hosting.”

iomart Hosting’s clients include some of the leading digital and creative agencies in the UK.

iomart’s Channel cloud services brand iomartcloud recently met with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which works to remove images and videos of child abuse from the internet and as such is a strategic partner for the IWF in its battle to eliminate such content online.

iomartcloud is a member of the IWF and met with CEO Susie Hargreaves to get an update on the positive work the IWF is doing to help rescue young victims and stop criminal gangs and commercial businesses profiting from images of child sexual abuse online.

IWF CEO Susie Hargreaves visited iomart’s Glasgow headquarters and was impressed by the success of its web filtering software Netintelligence in blocking unsuitable content from being accessed in offices, schools and homes throughout the UK. A team of highly trained IWF analysts provides iomartcloud with a list of web addresses that need to be blocked twice a day, these lists are then incorporated into the Netintelligence software to ensure those sites cannot be accessed.

“If it wasn’t for the great partnerships we have with companies like iomartcloud,” said susie, “the IWF would not be as successful as it is in stopping online child sexual abuse.”

since 2003, just 1% of child sexual abuse content is hosted in the UK, down from 18% in 1996 thanks to the work of the IWF and its

Members.

There is to be no let-up in the work of the IWF, particularly because of the growing trend for what is called ‘harvesting’ – the stealing of imagery that has been innocently posted online by either young people, their friends or family that could potentially be viewed in an inappropriate manner and the selling of that imagery to websites carrying pornographic content.

More than 50 Politicians from the UK and Europe recently signed up to help the IWF fight online child sexual abuse.

“Our aim in 2013 is to work even harder with our partner companies, parliamentarians and education officials to remove criminal content that appears on websites hosted outside of the UK as well as inside the UK,” explains susie Hargreaves.

iomartcloud is the first (and so far, only) organisation to have been awarded the Child safety Online Kitemark (PAs 74:2008) for its web filtering software.

For more information about iomartcloud’s cloud services visit www.iomartcloud.com and for Netintelligence go to www.netintelligence.com

To learn more about the work of the Internet Watch Foundation, visit www.iwf.org.uk

it’S a tangled web we weaveKeeping kids safe online

One of our youngest hosting customers Melbourne server Hosting and its self-serve cloud hosting brand Serverlove, announced that Windows Server 2012 was now available to customers, making it easier and cheaper to deploy private hosted desktops and take networks into the cloud.

Using the Microsoft operating system’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure customers will find it simpler to set up load-balanced and highly available private hosted desktop solutions, while the Hyper-V3 improvements mean that networks can be extended into the cloud and live cloud machines migrated much more easily.

Chris Marsh, Commercial Manager for Melbourne Server Hosting, said: “Windows Server 2012 gives our customers the ability to use their data to make better decisions about products, markets and operations. Cost-effective private cloud and hosted desktops are now at their fingertips, while storage is more resilient and much more flexible.”

The price of the Windows Server 2012 licence is 15% cheaper than the equivalent version of Windows server 2008 but contains all the features. Internet Information services 8.0 offers CPU throttling enabling fully sandboxed web apps and improved DoS protection. It also supports WebSockets facilitating live content and the creation of real-time games.

Windows Server 2012 makes management of private clouds much easier through centralised ssL certificates and the new storage spaces enable the pooling of physical disk to create resilient and flexible storage arrays.

Windows Server 2012 is available for immediate installation on any new or existing servers with Melbourne. Additionally, using Serverlove, users can instantly create a Windows Server 2012 cloud server with no long-term commitment, making it ideal for testing applications as well as creating solutions that scale quickly to meet demand.iomart’s dedicated server brand RapidSwitch announced Windows Server 2012 was available for its customers in October.

do you have a network So Slow it hertz?Melbourne serves up Windows Server 2012

www.iomart.com

Issue 2. December/January 2012Rack Pack

iomart Hosting was the headline sponsor for this year’s Social Buzz Awards which celebrate the very best in social media and award the most effective campaigns and strategies.

The winners were announced at a glittering awards evening at the Emirates Stadium on November 28. iomart Hosting’s head of corporate communications and marketing Phil Worms got the audience tweeting by delivering

his speech in 140 characters: “Welcome Great Honor Great Vibe Good Food Envelopes Congratulations Commiserations Get P****d Thank You Get Home Safe Goodnight #buzz_awards”

Taking home the top accolade, the Grand Prix award, was the team from Paddy Power who, never missing a trick to promote their brand, gave pairs of their promotional green pants to guests creating plenty of embarrassing images for the Twitter wall.

The Chairman’s Award, chosen by judging panel chairman Jae Hopkins from Butlins, was awarded to 383 Project for BrumDished. In-House Client Team of the Year went to Parlophone and the Social Media Agency of the Year was Rabbit.

Congratulations to all the winners and all those who were nominated. Entries for the 2013 Social Buzz Awards open in May so if you’re a social media specialist make sure you enter and we’ll see you at next year’s ceremony.

we hear you!Putting a social buzz in your pants

The men of iomart turned into Tom Selleck lookalikes for the month of November, by taking part in the global movement Movember, the month long growing of moustaches to raise awareness about men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer. Congratulations to all the iomart ‘Mo Bros’ who grew and groomed their moustaches and raised money for charity in the process.

Melbourne Server Hosting has been shortlisted for two prestigious Manchester business awards. It has been selected as a finalist in two categories for the City of Manchester Business Awards – Digital and Creative Business of the Year and Best Use of social Media.

Rajesh Joshi, Brand Manager for Melbourne, said: “We’re buzzing! Our goal is to make sure our customers get the best service from us, however they get in touch, so to be recognised as amongst the leading digital and creative firms in the city and for our use of social media is a real pleasure.”

The winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel on Deansgate, in March.

magnum forceA tach- tastic Movember

who’S the daddy?Melbourne shortlisted for Manchester Business awards

You can now enjoy a virtual tour of the Melbourne server Hosting offices via Google Street View.

Customers and potential clients can take a ‘walk’ through the company’s award-winning office at Lovell House on Manchester Technopark at http://bit.ly/TfGWvq.

360spin, a virtual tour photographic agency based in Manchester, created the panoramic view of the Melbourne offices.

Nicola Williams of 360spin, who holds the coveted title of Google “Trusted Photographer” in Manchester, said, “Walking

into the Melbourne server Hosting office is like walking through Alice’s looking glass. Who would imagine that I would see a rose garden complete with yellow brick road, a Narnia themed room and a tiger too? It’s definitely an office with a difference!”

Rajesh Joshi, Brand Manager for Melbourne, said: “Many of our customers are based across the UK and around the globe, so with Google Street View’s help we can now welcome them into our home, wherever they are.”

Not content with a simple tour of the office, Melbourne have left some unexpected items and messages around the office for Google

street Viewers to find, including a crocodile, a tiger and a cryptic code.

google Street view putS melbourne on the mapGoogle Maps puts Melbourne somewhere south of Mars

www.iomart.com

Issue 2. December/January 2012Rack Pack

the hoStS with the moStSet to cook up a storm at January’s Hospitality show

iomart Hosting will be exhibiting at a number of events during 2013. The first of them is the Hospitality Show 2013 at Birmingham’s NEC from

21st to 23rd January. They’ll be on stand 516 so make sure you pay them a visit if you’re going along.

rackpack roarS into action with pagetiger

This edition of Rackpack has been produced with the help of leading page-turning technology company PageTiger who use RapidSwitch’s data centre in Maidenhead for their hosting.

PageTiger’s page-turning technology makes it simple and affordable for businesses and

individuals to convert their print media into dynamic, digital content. The technology is unique because it is HTML enabled and doesn’t use Flash, so publications created using it can be viewed on Apple and Android devices – unlike other options on the market.

RapidSwitch provides dedicated hosting for PageTiger from its 2787m² data centre in Maidenhead, Berkshire. RapidSwitch also provides firewalls and backup for PageTiger, utilising diverse fibre connections to the off-site NAS space in another of the Group’s datacentres in London for disaster recovery purposes.

Henry Weston, founder and commercial director of PageTiger, said: “We have had a very, very good year and a lot of credit must go to RapidSwitch whose reliable hosting has

kept our publications available online at all times. This has helped us deliver a fantastic service to our customers all around the world and enabled our sales team to win a host of new contracts. Our hosting partnership with RapidSwitch has been a fantastic foundation on which to grow.”

Neil Christie, Commercial Manager for RapidSwitch, said: “As PageTiger has found, we work hard to understand and accommodate the very different needs of all our clients and we are delighted to be credited as part of its success story this year.”

At this time of the year iomart celebrates the 260 staff who work in its offices and data centres across the UK to deliver hosting services to customers. Awards are bestowed upon members of our team that we feel have gone that one step further to deliver that little bit more for our customers. This year’s top banana was Neil Christie, Commercial Manager for RapidSwitch, who received the overall award for Outstanding Contribution to iomart Group 2012.

And well done to all of our colleagues who were recognised for their hard work during the year and it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the team from Rack Pack Towers were inexplicably over looked.

iomart awardS

www.iomart.com

Issue 2. December/January 2012Rack Pack

keep in touchIf you would like any further details on the Group, our brands or the services that we provide please contact:

marketing@iomart.com

Alternatively join us on Twitter for our latest news. @iomartgroup @iomarthosting @easyspace @melbournehost @_rapidswitch @iomartcloud

© iomart Group plc 2012All trade marks are acknowledged

On behalf of everyone associated with the iomart Group, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours the greetings of the season and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2013.

Angus MacSween CEO