Cornish IT Company to take Government into the Cloud

Cornish IT Company to take Government into the Cloud

Piran Technologies, based in Redruth, has recently won a place on the newly unveiled Government G-Cloud Framework to supply Cloud Computing Services to Government departments, councils and other public sector bodies.

Mark Wright, Managing Director of Piran Technologies is excited about the future “We definitely see cloud technologies as being the future of the IT Industry. The G-Cloud project is testament to how far data security and software architecture has come on over recent years. As both a Microsoft and Google partner we have already successfully migrated a number of our customers to the cloud and that number is growing. They are seeing lower overheads, greater flexibility and increased productivity and this is something that all organisations can benefit from.”

Cloud computing allows organisations to streamline their IT infrastructure, reduce their costs and lower their carbon footprint by hosting services and software ‘in the cloud’. This is great news for the public sector that is hoping to save 90% of their IT costs in the coming years.

G-Cloud contracts with suppliers like Piran Technologies are being signed at up to 10 per cent of the price departments have historically paid - having the potential to save millions of pounds. “This technology means users only ‘buy’ the services they need.” Added Mark “G-Cloud enables organisations to run smoothly and share files in a secure and environment without being stuck with long contracts or out of date software. The advent of Superfast Broadband will only drive this revolution and it feels good that Piran Technologies are leading the way from here in Cornwall.”

Piran Technologies achieves Cisco Foundation Express in UK

Piran Technologies achieves Cisco Foundation Express in UK 

We are also pleased to announce, alongside our award for Cisco Premier Partner we have also gained the Cisco Express Foundation Certification.


This achievement shows the additional resource we have committed to Cisco products and services and additional depth we have added to the systems we design, implement and support from Cisco.

Piran Technologies achieves Cisco Premier Certified Partner in UK

Piran Technologies achieves Cisco Premier Certified Partner in UK 

We are very pleased to announce, for the fourth year running, we have re-certified to become a Cisco Premier Partner in the UK.


For our customers, this shows independent recognition of our skills in designing, implementing and supporting the world's leading security and collaboration systems provided by Cisco and used by the majority of businesses world wide.


From Cisco:


Congratulations to Piran Technologies Ltd for meeting all criteria to become a Cisco Premier Certified Partner in UK.

Piran Technologies Ltd has met all personnel and support requirements for achieving Cisco Premier Certification. Your company has demonstrated that it is qualified to sell, install, and support Cisco solutions in UK.

We value the commitment and expertise that Piran Technologies Ltd has demonstrated and look forward to a continuing successful partnership. 

Sincerely,

Cisco Channel Certification Team

CompTIA Green IT Specialists

CompTIA Green IT Specialists


We are pleased to announce that Piran Technologies is now officially recognised with the CompTIA Green IT certification and has two qualified CompTIA Green IT specialists.


The CompTIA specialism confirms Piran's commitment to promoting sustainable computing systems that increase business productivity and our passion for passing on this knowledge to our customers.

The CompTIA Green IT certification ensures knowledge and skills necessary to implement environmentally sound techniques within an organization's IT infrastructure. The certification enhances existing IT credentials to incorporate emerging technologies that shape the global green IT industry. 

The exam covers areas necessary to implement and measure green IT programs and investments, including:

• A specialized knowledge of current IT methodologies
• The ability to develop, deploy, and calculate true ROI for green IT initiatives
• Knowledge of cost-cutting power management and IT virtualization techniques
• Proven understanding of environmentally-sound waste disposal
• An awareness of global organizations mandating standards and regulations

Green IT certification candidates should have completed CompTIA A+, CompTIA Server+ or other IT credentials in addition to a minimum of 18 months of technical experience.

The Green IT certification is intended for IT professionals who have decision making authority over a company's IT infrastructure or work in implementing green IT initiatives such as an IT manager, data center or facilities / operations manager, IT technician, and system or network administrator.

Power Management to Reduce Carbon

Power Equals Money for Cornish Company.

Solar, Wind and Wave all provide good clean energy, but sometimes there is no substitute for good old fashioned energy saving.

Teagle Machinery, based in Cornwall, manufacture agricultural machinery for sale in the U.K. and throughout the world. As a steadily growing business they are always looking for increased efficiencies and reducing power consumption is top on the list. Mark Lawrence IT Manager of Teagle said “Like many companies, most of our office computers are idle outside normal office hours.  Relying on staff to turn them off is a hit and miss approach. We wanted to find a solution that could manage needless power consumption, lower our energy costs and reduce our carbon footprint.  We talked to Piran Technologies about the problem and the results were impressive.”

“Teagle’s requirements are universal to every business and are in synergy with our own company ethos.” Said Mark Wright, Managing Director of Cornish company Piran Technologies. “As an IT consultancy that specialises in lowering carbon costs for our customers we are only too aware of the environmental and financial impact of today’s business systems.” 

Piran Technology installed virtual servers, reducing the number of physical servers on site. “At the time Teagle came to us we were trialling several software suites capable of isolating individual computers and other electrical items and turning them ‘off’ remotely during long periods of inactivity, typically outside office hours.  These items could then be automatically restarted when needed in the morning.”

“The great thing about this software, unlike power consumption monitoring products,” added Mark Lawrence from Teagle “is that it eliminates the need for human intervention.  We set the policies for each item and the workstations can be ‘sympathetically’ shut down to ensure no data is lost.  These workstations are then automatically re-started in time for when they are required.  We control the software and the rules, not the other way round.”

“The tools we are implementing are incredibly sophisticated.” Said Mark from Piran Technologies “For instance, if they sense activity on the p.c. then it won’t be shut down.  Instead it will keep checking, if it senses inactivity for 30 minutes for example it will then save any work and power it off.”

“Over the initial 4 week trial period our company, Teagle, saved a massive 165.2 Kw/h of power.”  Confirmed Mark Lawrence.   “Over a 12 month period we will save over £1300 and nearly 5 tonnes of carbon on just 15 computers.  Based on that data we have already doubled the rollout, I mean why wouldn’t you?”

Piran Technologies are now hoping to take this technology further and are looking at marketing their own branded energy management solution.  “Companies need to use electricity, that’s unavoidable,” added Mark “they just need better tools to help them manage it.”

Notes for Editors:

About Piran Technologies

Piran Technologies help businesses become more resource efficient by designing, implementing and supporting computer services that increase productivity, reduce running costs and lower carbon footprints.  The company has invested in training a highly skilled workforce in some of the leading technologies proved to increase business productivity.  Piran Technologies are committed to becoming carbon and waste neutral as an organisation in 2012.  They are currently expanding their portfolio of low carbon strategies and hope to be offering their own branded complete energy management solution in the near future.  The company intends to make all of its achievements public access to ensure the benefits are shared with the entire business community.

Contact: 

+44 1209 708 609 

mark@pirantech.co.uk

http://www.pirantech.co.uk

About Teagle Machinery

Teagle Machinery Ltd, based just outside Truro in Cornwall, was formed in 1944 and was initially based around a family farm. It has grown steadily over the years from a company selling early post war equipment to West of England farmers, into a modern, professional organisation, but still a family business, which sells machines to the whole of the UK and exports to virtually all major countries of the world.  Teagle has a policy of investing in the future, both by way of product development and manufacturing resources. State of the art technology is used throughout the company.

Contact: 

+44 1872 560592

mark.lawrence@teagle.co.uk

http://www.teagle.co.uk

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Photo:

From left to right: Mark Lawrence – IT Manager Teagle Machinery; Mark Wright – Managing Director, Piran Technologies.

Carbon footprint: A competitive advantage?

There's no doubt that carbon management and environmental sustainability practices are still very much in their infancy and for many small businesses the mention of sustainability conjures up images of 'green wash'. So what part does sustainability play in your business plan? And do you consider it as a competitive advantage?


Many larger organisations already pay tax on the levels of carbon they produce. No doubt, as the government's carbon commitment program is further legislated these taxes will increase. For many organisations, until now, so-called 'green wash' has been nothing more than a feel good smokescreen. A way of implying your commitment to sustainability without having to ACTUALLY prove it. This approach is no longer relevant as the addition of costs through increased taxation and rising fuel prices directly effects profitability in a dramatic way.


When analysing how large businesses react to these issues it is important to understand how carbon footprints are measured and some of the methods larger organisations will employ to reduce their carbon footprints.


Carbon Scope
The current standard for carbon foot printing splits carbon into three separate scopes. More details of these can be found on the carbon trusts website.


Scope 1 - Direct emissions


Direct emissions resulting from activities within the organisation’s control. Includes on-site fuel combustion, manufacturing and process emissions, refrigerant losses and company vehicles.


Scope 2 - Indirect emissions: electricity and heat


Indirect emissions from electricity, heat or steam purchased and used by the organisation.


Scope 3 - Indirect emissions: other
Any other indirect emissions from sources not directly controlled by the organisation.



Generally speaking scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions are relatively easy to calculate as the information required is usually readily available to the business. These can also be relatively easy to reduce with the implementation of sustainable technologies and renewable power sources.


It is Scope 3 that provides the biggest challenge to both calculate and reduce as it takes into account the business supply chain. This is the scope that will have a direct effect on the small businesses that deal directly with larger organisations. As larger businesses have traditionally 'screwed down' the costs associated with the supply chain, so will the inevitably look to turn the screw on the equivalent carbon burden.

Put simply, if you are a low carbon company you have less of a carbon overhead to pass on to the up-chain.


Promoting your carbon footprint

So how can you promote your carbon footprint positively? Well, first of all, you must be clear, committed and open about what you measure and what you don't measure. If your carbon footprint is based on scope 1 and scope 2 tell your customers this.

If you're customers are focused on 'Scope 3' then they will expect you to be. Simply 'pushing' some of your 'Scope 1 and 2' carbon into 'Scope 3' won't fool anyone if you're not declaring it. No one likes to suddenly be hit with a hidden charge, and this is exactly what you could be leaving your customer open to.

So whilst there are certain elements of your business that can be pushed into 'Scope 3' it isn't necessarily is also not good practice unless the 'Scope 3' is fully disclosed.


You can however use this method to reduce costs and your carbon footprint if you look carefully at your 'Scope 3' suppliers.


Example 1: IT outsourcing


If you outsource IT services you can directly reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions through less labour, hardware, travel etc. If your selected supplier also has a low or better still a zero carbon footprint you will also reduce your organisations overall carbon footprint. Their footprint is proportionally passed into yours and so on and so forth. Whilst merely outsourcing will have some positive effects on your footprint, outsourcing to low carbon suppliers, who in turn have good 'Scope 3' credentials will increase your attractiveness upwards throughout the overall supply chain.


Example 2: Cloud Computing


Leaving aside the debate about what is and isn't 'cloud' computing we can still use it to support our goals with regards cost and carbon reduction.


Consider your IT infrastructure as Servers (Hardware) and Services (The functions they perform). Each of these, but mainly the services can be moved from internal platforms to hosted solutions on the internet AKA cloud computing services. It's a common misconception that you have to move ALL of your infrastructure to the cloud and its dependency, this isn't the case. It is more likely that you will be able to move a large proportion, if not all, of your day to day administrative applications, such as email, word processing, spreadsheets etc to a secure cloud based service whilst retaining ERP or Accounting systems in house. It is also worth noting that the availability of superfast broadband is NOT a pre-requisite, and a great many organisations are enjoying the benefits of having their regular 'office' applications 'in the cloud' with their existing broadband connection thus reducing the need for extensive file servers and streamlining their in-house server resources. There are many different cloud services available and each should be considered in isolation for its benefits to your business.


So, its similar to the first example but on a slightly smaller scale you can move IT services to cloud computing platforms to reduce your running costs and scope 1 and scope 2 carbon emissions but you must consider the carbon footprint of the service you undertake in order to calculate and disclose your overall carbon footprint.




Gaining a competitive advantage
So for those of us that are small businesses and not directly impacted by legislation that taxes our carbon emissions we need to consider our place in the 'Scope 3' of larger organisations. If you are clear, committed and communicate your actions, achievements and progress you will gain a competitive advantage over your competition and rank higher in the selection process for larger organisations.

Boosting Green IT Sales Resources

We'd like to extend a warm welcome to Nigel Barker, who started with Piran Technologies today.

Nigel has several years of technical experience and an excellent understanding of our customers needs. We are confident he will be a welcome addition to our business as we further expand our  Green IT services.

Nigel will be working within our sales team to help develop, market and sell Green IT services and introduce energy saving initiatives into our existing and potential customers in the UK.  Despite a long background in computer support and systems design Nigel's recent career has seen achieve a masters degree in broadcast journalism, lecturer at University College, Falmouth and a long standing radio DJ with Atlantic FM.


Nigel's welcomed return to the computer industry will inject a wealth of experience into our business and our community as a whole and we're sure his personable nature will enhance our already high level of customer services.