New Service Migrates Business Critical Applications, Leverages Network Performance to the Cloud
ATLANTA, March 26, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cbeyond Inc. (NASDAQ:CBEY, news, filings), the technology ally to small and mid-sized businesses, today announced general availability of its new Certified Application Servers™ (CAS) service for the small and mid-sized business market, enabling users to securely access and run their most frequently used business productivity applications from anywhere, any time and on any device.
The service was developed to support needs identified in Cbeyond’s December 2012 Business Leader Snapshot Survey which found that 91 percent of SMB owners believe applications will be critical to their business in 2013, highlighting the value of providing safe, universal access to essential business productivity programs and relevant data.
Cbeyond’s Certified Application Servers allow businesses to take an existing enterprise application and associated data to a secure cloud environment and give them confidence that the migration, performance and operation of that application in the cloud will mirror their on-premise server experience. Cbeyond can make this commitment because its customers access their business-critical applications in the cloud over dedicated, symmetrical bandwidth that directly links their premise to a secure data center utilizing Cbeyond’s privately-owned, premise-to-cloud TotalNetwork™ architecture, thereby ensuring their data never touches the public Internet. Additionally, Cbeyond can certify business productivity software programs—including proprietary software programs—to meet a customer’s unique needs while guiding them through a rapid migration to the cloud — often within a week.
“Our goal is to provide SMBs with a superior cloud experience that is no different than what they experience on a local desktop,” said Chris Ortbals, senior vice president, product management. “As the only cloud provider tailoring and supporting applications for specific SMB use cases, Cbeyond further serves as the technology ally to small and mid-sized businesses, helping them drive efficiency by truly aligning both cloud and network capabilities.”
“At Primo Grills and Smokers, we pride ourselves on manufacturing superior culinary products. As a result, we seek out organizations that share our commitment to excellence, nimbleness, and performance. Cbeyond’s Certified Application Servers service has enhanced the business infrastructure we’ve created to respond to our customers’ ever-changing changing needs,” said George Samaras, president and founder of Primo Grills and Smokers.
To certify an application, Cbeyond’s expert engineers perform operational, load and impairment testing across a range of network technologies to ensure compatibility with various network access points.
Cbeyond engineers begin this process by simulating a production cloud architecture for many common SMB desktop applications and operating systems. An application’s performance is then tested for error rates, latency and circuit outages to determine the minimum symmetrical bandwidth commitment and network thresholds needed before a deterioration in performance occurs, with testing for some edge cases. Testing is performed at 1 – 100 Mbps across various network access technologies under normal operating conditions (T1, T3, EFM, MPLS, and Fiber), first at on-premise equipment and then along the network all the way to servers hosted in a cloud data center.
Finally, cloud servers are sized, configured and packaged for optimal application access and performance across a number of concurrent users, above and beyond minimum software manufacturer recommendations.
The Certified Application Servers certification process is an entry point for leading enterprise and SMB ISV applications across a variety of vertical industries such as accounting, legal, and medical industries and accommodates programs most commonly used across the SMB spectrum, with plans to support an additional six to 12 applications each quarter.
The Certified Application Servers service currently supports the following business productivity applications:
- Intuit QuickBooks® (Pro, Premiere and Enterprise versions)
- Sage ACT!™
- Sage Peachtree Accounting™
- Sage 50 Accounting™
- Abacus Law™ 2012
- Amazing Charts™ 6.0
- Microsoft® Office
To ensure protection for all application information, Cbeyond houses its Certified Application Servers service in its SOC-3 compliant data center, which leverages intrusion prevention systems, enterprise-grade hardware and private firewalls to block unauthorized access. To view a social media version of this press release, click here: http://pitch.pe/ZQYxeJ.
About Cbeyond
Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBEY), a cloud and communications services provider, is the technology ally for small and mid-sized business. Our private, proactively-managed IP network connects customers to voice, data and enterprise applications hosted in our award-winning cloud data centers. Since 1999, Cbeyond has served the unmet needs of businesses through technology and service innovation. We were the first company to build an all-IP network specifically for small businesses and among the few to offer consultative sales and service professionals onsite. Today, our expanded portfolio helps customers reduce the burden of outlaying capital and manpower to manage infrastructure. Creating an exceptional customer experience is in our DNA. It’s why more than a third of our approximately 60,000 customers come from referrals. For more information on Cbeyond, visit www.cbeyond.com and follow Cbeyond on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Cbeyondinc.
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CONTACT: Media Contact:
Helga Ojinmah
(678) 370-2243
helga.ojinmah@cbeyond.com
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