Assured cloud services provider extends product portfolio

Skyscape is introducing new solutions that meet requirements for agility, security and accessibility as they move not just workloads associated with digital applications to the cloud, but also legacy applications. Skyscape is introducing these changes to meet these requirements and therefore support its customers, who are exclusively public sector organisations.

“Cloud adoption is increasing exponentially within the public sector,” said Simon Hansford, CEO of Skyscape Cloud Services. “As a company, it is our aim to further support the Government’s objective to advance the take up of cloud computing with our proven delivery model, new products and latest price reductions, ensuring our customers benefit from high-quality services at the best possible price. Our significant success to date – much of which has been achieved through G-Cloud – has enabled us to achieve economies of scale and deliver repeated price reductions.”

Key changes to Skyscape’s service catalogue include:

· The pricing of storage offerings for both its Infrastructure-as-a-Service options (Compute-as-a-Service and Storage-as-a-Service) will be reduced by up to 44 percent and 75 percent respectively
· A new pricing model for connectivity; its connectivity services will now follow the same model as its cloud solutions, with customers only paying for what they use
· Continued free connectivity via the PSN Assured network as well as tiered pricing for connectivity via the PSN Protected network or N3
· Increased SLA for its Compute-as-a-Service BASIC service to 99.99 percent

Skyscape is re-packaging and re-pricing its solutions to ensure compliance with the new Government Security Classification Policy (GSCP). Following the introduction of the new GSCP, Skyscape will maintain two distinct platforms; one of these is natively connected to the internet (Assured OFFICIAL platform) and the other is only connected to Government networks (Elevated OFFICIAL platform). Both platforms will be independently validated to be suitable for all OFFICIAL data, including OFFICIAL SENSITIVE data.

In addition to this platform strategy, Skyscape is launching a range of new services and improved features to help its customers implement online services quickly and securely. The UK Government is delivering not just exemplar services online, but larger transactional services as well, and these are being delivered using cloud solutions. Legacy applications are also being shifted to the cloud. All this means more complex solutions are required and more significant workloads are generated. To support this continued adoption of cloud computing and its customers’ evolving requirements, Skyscape is introducing the following:

· Cross Domain Security Zone – to offer flexible and secure gateways between the lower and higher security platforms
· Secure Remote Access option for accessing its Elevated OFFICIAL cloud platform
· Specialist DDoS protection capability as standard for all internet-connected solutions
· Storage options designed to deliver superior performance for many write-intensive workloads
· Dedicated Compute which provides customers with exclusive use of host servers in order to comply with legacy licensing requirements
· HybridConnect: announced last month, this new service facilitates the creation of hybrid cloud solutions which federate Skyscape’s assured cloud platform with a wide variety of private and public cloud options
· Enhanced Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) product capabilities and free trials to encourage further adoption

Hansford continued: “We are introducing a number of new options to support our public sector customers in delivering secure transactional services to citizens. We have developed these in line with our customers’ requirements, which ultimately demonstrates our continued and exclusive commitment to the UK public sector.”