http://www.iomart.com/

The Group's principal activity is providing web based managed hosting services for both the consumer and business.

Originally founded in 1998 as an integrated internet and telecommunications company, the Group has evolved to become one of Europe’s largest providers of managed hosting, colocation, data centre, and business continuity services, serving over 300, 000 customers each day. Having been at the forefront of the UK’s technological revolution for the past decade the Group has developed an enviable reputation for its internet expertise, its service ethic and its product innovation.

The Group holds a unique position within the marketplace. By owning its own data centre and network infrastructure, it is able to deliver the complete set of vertical components in the hosting arena from domain names, virtual web space, security, web marketing, SEO, websites, dedicated servers through to complex managed hosting solutions, colocation space, power, cooling and bandwidth.

As more and more mission critical business applications move on to the web, so organisations need more resilience, security and 24 hour management; the market for managed hosting services and datacentre capacity is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.Described by US Analyst Tier 1 as "currently enjoying the sort of momentum that could soon place it on the list of European heavyweights.", the iomart Group is fast proving to be one of the UK's leading lights in the provision of true cloud computing services.

Easyspace Partners With Online Accountants Crunch to Help Startups

Posted on July 15, 2013


Partnership offers Domain Name, Hosting and Financial Advice for New Business

Easyspace, one of the UK’s largest ICANN accredited domain name registrars and web hosting companies and part of iomart Group plc, has partnered with online accountants Crunch to support startup businesses.

The partnership will see Easyspace offer web hosting and domain name advice and packages while Crunch will provide advice on tax and finances, plus on-going accounting support for the UK’s fast-growing startups.

Sarah Haran, managing director of Easyspace, said: “We can provide the critical tools to get a startup business online in the first place, while Crunch has the expert knowledge on how to manage the financial side. Together we can provide the best advice and support possible to help lots of exciting new ventures get online and start trading successfully.”

Darren Fell, managing director of Crunch, continued: “We’re taking on more and more startups every day, so it seemed logical to find the very best technology partner to go alongside our financial and tax expertise. A website and an accountant are two absolute business essentials, so we’ve put together the best possible package.”

The partnership is being launched with a free seminar entitled ‘Accountancy In The Cloud‘ at Google Campus, Bonhill Street, London on Thursday 18 July. The event is especially for startup businesses and takes place from 6.30pm to 9:30pm. There is no need to register in advance, so you can just turn up.

Crunch offers a unique package combining phone advice from a team of expert accountants with easy-to-use online accounting software for a fixed monthly fee. It was founded by online entrepreneur Darren Fell, with investment from Bebo’s co-founder Paul Birch and former Skype Chairman Michael van Swaaij.

iomart Group News









iomart support widens pupil participation in University of Strathclyde Business Challenge

Posted on July 23, 2013


iomart Group sponsors innovative summer learning programme

Jan-McGhie-(far-L)-and-the-pupils-taking-part-in-the-iomart-sponsored-S@S-Business-Challenge1

iomart Group plc has helped a significant number of pupils to attend a learning programme run by the University of Strathclyde that helps widen access to higher education for teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Almost 120 pupils from secondary schools across Scotland have taken part in the University of Strathclyde’s S@S Accelerate Business & Enterprise Challenge since it was launched in 2009.

Bellshill Academy, Inverclyde Academy and Larkhall Academy are among the schools taking part in this year’s programme. During the five-day event, the pupils have the task of rebranding a well-known Scottish town and will present their results to a panel of industry and university experts. The sponsorship of iomart has enabled around 40 pupils to attend.

Iain Mitchell from the Innovative Routes to Learning (IRL) centre at the University of Strathclyde said: “We are delighted that iomart has pledged its support and that we are able to offer a significant number of places to pupils from schools with lower Higher Education participation rates”

Phil Worms, Director of Marketing for iomart Group, said: “As a company, it’s important that we support closer collaboration between higher education and our industry and encourage children to be confident about the learning and career choices they make.”

Jan McGhie, IRL’s Business Challenge Leader said: “We’re really delighted that iomart has supported us this year because the young people who take part do show significant improvements in their attitude to their existing academic ability. This gives them the confidence to undertake a university degree as a result.”

The University of Stratchclyde’s S@S Accelerate programme – which includes 13 separate subject areas – is particularly successful in engaging pupils from schools where participation in higher education is below the national average. In 2012, 57% of the 247 participants came from schools where Higher Education progression was below the national average.

The University of Strathclyde was named UK University of the Year in the 2012 Times Higher Education Awards. iomart Group plc is one of the UK’s leading providers of cloud and managed hosting services. Among its clients in the education sector is online learning provider ufi/learndirect.
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RapidSwitch dedicated hosting supports Xbox gamers social network boom

Posted on July 24, 2013


trueachievementsTrueAchievements celebrates 5th birthday with beta PlayStation network launch

RapidSwitch, the leading supplier of self-managed dedicated servers and part of iomart Group plc, has helped a social network for the Xbox gaming community hit huge visitor numbers on its fifth birthday.

TrueAchievements provides a more skill-related scoring method for Xbox games by re-calculating Xbox Live GamerScores using a formula related to the difficulty of the achievements that have been won. It gets 850,000 unique visitors a month and almost 20 million monthly page views.

TrueAchievements is hosted by RapidSwitch in its Maidenhead datacentre. It has grown from a single colocated 1U server to three leased servers, including one ‘behemoth’ created by the RapidSwitch technical team which has Dual Intel Xeon Hex-Core L5640; 128GB Memory; and 8 x 2.5″ 600GB 10k Hard Drives in RAID 10.

Rich Stone, developer of TrueAchievements, said: “The site now runs like a rocket. Number crunching jobs that were taking upwards of 14 hours to complete are now done and dusted in under two!”

Neil Christie, Commercial Director for RapidSwitch, explains, “RapidSwitch provides the bandwidth, low latency network and bespoke technical support that has helped TrueAchievements become the go-to Xbox community site. The site is online at all times, the hardware can withstand the huge demands placed upon it and most important of all, Rich and the TrueAchievements team know that we are there to support them as they grow.”

Rich Stone now has a PlayStation version of the site called TrueTrophies.com in beta and will be expanding his RapidSwitch infrastructure to cope with its expected popularity.

He said: “Launching a site with this much functionality is unprecedented in gaming. We’re in the process of testing everything thoroughly before we take the PlayStation world by storm!”

Melbourne Server Hosting is Headline Sponsor of Inaugural Mancoolian Awards

Posted on July 25, 2013


Award Winning Hosting Company Supports New Awards for Manchester Business

mancoolian award logoAward-winning Manchester server hosting company Melbourne has become the headline sponsor for a new set of awards which recognise the city’s individual business stars.

Melbourne has been signed up by business networking organisation Downtown Manchester in Business to support the Mancoolian Awards, a new set of awards that will honour the men and women of Manchester who have demonstrated entrepreneurial determination over the past 12 months.

Rob Greenwood, Technical & Commercial Director of Melbourne, said: “We are proud to provide web hosting for many of the companies that make Manchester tick. Sponsoring the first Mancoolian Awards allows us to shout about the talented individuals behind the companies who have helped this city maintain its position at the forefront of business in the UK.”

The Mancoolian Awards are being organised by Downtown Manchester in Business, the independent business club that provides leadership links between the private and public sector organisations in the city.

Michael Taylor, Chairman of Downtown Manchester in Business said: “Melbourne embodies the entrepreneurial spirit that is behind the inaugural Mancoolian Awards. We are excited to have them as our headline sponsor to honour the people who have demonstrated grit, determination and entrepreneurial flair during the past twelve months.”

The Mancoolian Awards will take place in October at the five star Lowry Hotel. Voting is now open for categories that range from ‘Sexy Networker’ to ‘Entrepreneur of the Year.’

Melbourne employs 30 staff at its datacentres on the Manchester Technopark and is part of the iomart Group plc, one of the UK’s leading cloud companies. Melbourne delivers 24/7 support for a wide range of customers and its offices were voted among the 10 coolest places to work by The Telegraph.

iomart Group plc Ranked European No1 Hosting Company in Top 100 Cloud Services Providers Report



http://news.iomart.com/iomart-group-plc-ranked-european-no1-hosting-company-in-top-100-cloud-services-providers-report/

RapidSwitch Launches Latest Generation Intel CPUs for Hosting Customers

Posted on August 5, 2013


Haswell Processors Give Better Server Speed and Reliability

RapidSwitch, one of the UK’s leading server hosting companies and part of iomart Group, has launched a new range of servers based on the Intel Haswell 4th Generation CPUs.

The new CPUs provide the biggest single generational gain in power efficiency in the history of x86 processors. Haswell are the fastest single socket processors in the market, offering 52% better performance per watt, and at 13 watts, the lowest-power Xeon ever. They also show significant performance improvements on graphics compared to the last generation chips.

RapidSwitch, which manages over 20,000 servers for a wide range of clients including Minecraft gamer hosting company Creeperhost and online publishing platform PageTiger, has the Intel E3-1230v3 CPU in stock, but can also provide any CPU in the new range.

Neil Christie, Commercial Director of RapidSwitch, said: “The combination of Intel’s trusted brand with a new range of processors built for advanced speed and reliability means our customers will get the ultimate performance from their server hardware.”

RapidSwitch was one of the first UK hosting companies to introduce 16 Core systems using Intel E5 Generation CPUs when they were first released and continues to push forward and bring clients the latest technology to power their hosting and cloud computing requirements.

Ex divi 7 Aug - payment 3 Sept 1.4p

iomart group PLC (IOM:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 288.00. Over this period, the share price is up 82.28%.

iomart group PLC (IOM:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 298.25. Over this period, the share price is up 86.41%

Acquisition of Redstation Limited

RNS


RNS Number : 2703N

Iomart Group PLC

05 September 2013




5 September 2013

iomart Group plc

("iomart" or the "Group" or the "Company")



Acquisition of Redstation Limited ("Redstation")



iomart, the cloud computing company, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the entire issued share capital of Redstation on a cash-free/debt-free basis with normalised working capital.



£6.6m has been paid as an initial consideration, of which £5.1m has been paid in cash and £1.5m satisfied by the issue of 515,464 new ordinary shares. A further contingent consideration of up to £1.5m is potentially payable in cash subject to Redstation achieving certain profit targets in the period to end March 2014.



Redstation is a Hampshire based provider of dedicated servers and bandwidth. It operates a full sales, support and technical operation in Gosport with two freehold datacentres providing services to around 3,000 customers. Through the acquisition of Redstation, and operating alongside its existing Rapidswitch brand, this will significantly enhance iomart's position as one of the leading UK-based providers of dedicated servers housing approximately 20,000 physical servers on behalf of customers.



Redstation's turnover in the twelve months to 31 June 2013 was £5.2 million with an EBITDA1 of £2.4 million and net assets of £1.8 million. The initial consideration and any contingent consideration will be financed out of the Group's existing banking facilities and the acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing before acquisition costs and normal acquisition adjustments including any fair value adjustments and the amortisation of intangible assets.



Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares, which will rank pari passu with the existing shares in issue, to be admitted to trading on AIM, and admission is expected to become effective on 10 September 2013. The Company's total issued share capital after the admission of the new ordinary shares will be 106,580,482 ordinary shares. There are 140,773 ordinary shares in the iomart Group plc Employee Benefit Trust and the Company holds 1,023,453 of its ordinary shares in treasury. Therefore the total number of ordinary shares with voting rights in the Company is 105,416,256. This figure of 105,416,256 ordinary shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.



Angus MacSween, Chief Executive stated:

"We are delighted to complement our continued organic growth through the acquisition of Redstation. The addition of Redstation will consolidate our position as the leading player in the dedicated server market in the UK.



"Redstation's customers deliver a wide variety of cloud applications and services from the physical servers they buy from them, further underpinning iomart's strategic goal of providing the 'picks and shovels' of the cloud environment through the provision of the complex infrastructure required."



1 EBITDA means earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation

5 Sep Canaccord... 300.00 Buy

Iomart: Canaccord Genuity ups target price from 272p to 300p and maintains a buy recommendation.

Yesterdays news just being digested. This share always takes a couple of days to react to good news.

Posted on September 9, 2013


UK Cloud Company Invests in Massive Onsite Storage Capability

vmax_storage


iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM), has become one of the first cloud hosting companies in the world to install EMC® VMAX ® Cloud Edition platform, a self-service, enterprise-class as-a-service, cloud delivery platform, onsite in its data centre, giving its customers direct access to the world’s most comprehensive range of powerful, trusted and smart storage.

With the VMAX Cloud Edition solution, iomart is able to move away from a traditional model of shared storage and offer a range of pre-engineered service levels to satisfy a wide range of workloads. With automatic service delivery features on-demand, clients benefit from enterprise-class storage and the flexibility to provide the right result needed for their applications.

VMAX Cloud Edition leverages capabilities found in the EMC® VMAX® array, which is trusted by Fortune 50 companies and many of the world’s largest banks.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “We invested in VMAX Cloud Edition because we believe it’s important that our customers can manage their storage needs according to their requirements rather than us dictating what they can have. Not only does this put our storage capabilities on a par with some of the world’s biggest corporations, it gives our customers the ability to manage and move their workloads in any way they want through structured pricing bands.”

Matthew Yeager, Director of Software Engineering EMEA for EMC, commented: “We are delighted that iomart, already identified as a progressive and innovative partner through our Velocity™ Service Provider programme, has decided to extend its leading-edge customer centric services with VMAX Cloud Edition. Collectively we are most successful when we work with partners like iomart who have a clear idea of the services they wish to offer their customers.”

A video explaining what EMC VMAX Cloud Edition storage means for iomart’s customers can be viewed here

Digital Marketing Event Organiser ad:tech Moves to the iomart Cloud

Posted on September 10, 2013


iomart Provides Secure and Scalable UK cloud hosting

iomar_ad_tech_cloud_hosting

Glasgow, UK: ad:tech, the organiser of the world’s largest digital marketing conferences, has chosen CloudSure from iomart Hosting, a leading UK provider of bespoke cloud and managed hosting, to ensure a scalable and highly available web presence ahead of its annual London event.

Every year ad:tech stages ten global advertising and technology conferences and exhibitions which provide a forum for digital marketing trends and initiatives and are attended by thousands of digital professionals. ad:tech London takes place on September 11 – 12 at Olympia.

The company behind ad:tech, dmg::events, were hosting on a physical infrastructure with a web hosting company in the south of France but decided they needed more secure and flexible hosting in the UK. The Cloud gives them the ability to cope with peaks of interest around each of their events.

They now have a fully managed Cloud solution including, Server, Backup, Storage and Firewall on iomart Hosting’s high availability CloudSure platform.

James Drake Brockman, Head of EMEA, Digital Marketing for dmg::events, said: “When I took responsibility for ad:tech at the start of 2013 I ordered an audit of the technology we were using. As a UK based organisation I felt we should be hosting here. It was a quick and natural decision to go with the UK’s leading provider of cloud services and benefit from more flexible provisioning.”

Sarah Haran, Managing Director of iomart hosting, said: “We’re delighted to be providing cloud hosting for the leading organiser of digital marketing events around the world. CloudSure gives ad:tech the ability to cope quickly and efficiently with spikey traffic around the conferences and exhibitions it stages.”

Nice and steady, market digested the news.

RapidSwitch Provides Secure Cloud Hosting for Documents Online

Posted on September 16, 2013


Electronic Document Management Company Chooses Secure Private Cloud

shutterstock_111009062

iomart Group dedicated hosting brand RapidSwitch, has been selected by Documents Online to host its new affordable electronic document management (EDM) software in a secure, private cloud.

Documents Online, which is part of information management specialists IPC Group and based in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, has launched a new package of cloud-based EDM software which uses icons rather than the traditional ‘tree structure’ that most systems use. The company’s customers range from payroll specialists to intellectual property consultants so it needed a reliable and secure environment in which to host the new software.

Graham Light, Director of Documents Online, said: “Customers trust us to store thousands of important documents such as contracts, invoices and purchase orders. Having our new software securely hosted on a private cloud in RapidSwitch’s UK data centre means those customers can relax, knowing that we control and support the software for them twenty four hours a day.”

Documents Online carries out all work remotely via the web from initial demonstrations to system specification and set up, right through to training. Its key requirements from RapidSwitch were sophisticated monitoring, KVM over IP availability, dedicated network firewall and security features, an easy-to-use control panel and 24/7 support.

Neil Christie, Commercial Director of RapidSwitch, said: “We were able to deploy a ready-to-run high availability private cloud environment for Documents Online so they could meet the strict security regulations surrounding their customer’s requirements while at the same time allowing round-the-clock access to their data.”

RapidSwitch hosts thousands of servers for a wide range of clients at its data centre in Maidenhead, Berkshire. It has a reputation for excellence in customer service with technical support provided 24/7/365. Clients include streaming service providers, gaming companies, voice over IPs (VOIP) and global media broadcasters.

Good to see no great sell off today, as Shares suggests take profits but keep half of your original stake to maintain exposure. Not selling mine.

Five growing UK software companies

By Jessica Furseth | Fri, 20th September 2013 - 17:11


Iomart

Cloud computing specialist Iomart (IOM) has seen its shares climb steadily in 2013, supported by an upbeat outlook at May's full-year results. "We continue to be well placed to deliver an ever-wider range of cloud services and with our growing credibility and strength we expect to be able to penetrate further into the corporate environment," said CEO Angus MacSween.

Revenues grew 29% to £43 million, while adjusted pre-tax profits grew 56% to £10.7 million.

Iomart, which provides hosting and managed services, aims to add further acquisitions to an already active shopping schedule, as the Glasgow company positions itself to take advantage of the data boom.





http://www.iii.co.uk/articles/116866/five-growing-uk-software-companies

iomart subsidiary RapidSwitch establishes Points of Presence in the United States

Posted on September 23, 2013


iomart Group’s dedicated server brand expands network to North America

RapidSwitch US PoPs- map








RapidSwitch, the leading European supplier of self-managed dedicated server solutions and part of UK cloud company iomart Group plc, has extended its network into the United States.

RapidSwitch has established Points of Presence (PoPs) in Atlanta, Phoenix, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas, New Jersey and Chicago, creating a transatlantic network connection for UK customers who require multi-geographic platforms across the globe.

Covering the East and West coasts of the US is of paramount importance for delivering low-latency bandwidth to customers across the whole of the country, which is a far greater challenge than in the UK due to the sheer size difference between the two regions.

Neil Christie, Commercial Director of RapidSwitch, said: “We are now offering a secure inter-linked network connection, primarily for UK customers who want to deliver secure, global platforms without the worry of building relationships with multiple providers in different time zones.”

RapidSwitch hosts thousands of servers for a wide range of clients and has a reputation for excellence in customer service with technical support provided 24x7x365.

RapidSwitch is part of iomart Group plc which has one of the largest and fastest networks in the UK serving clients include streaming service providers, gaming companies, voice over IPs (VOIP) and global media broadcasters. This national MPLS-enabled network enables private circuits to be provided to customers not only between the datacentre sites but directly to their own locations.

Acquisition, Trading Update and Notice of Results

RNS


RNS Number : 3418P

Iomart Group PLC

01 October 2013




1st October 2013

iomart Group plc

("iomart" or the "Group" or the "Company")



Acquisition, Trading Update and Notice of Results



iomart, the cloud computing company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Backup Technology Holdings Limited and its wholly owned subsidiary ("BTL"), a leading provider of cloud data backup and disaster recovery services. The Company also provides an update on trading ahead of the announcement of half yearly results for the six months to 30 September 2013.



Acquisition of Backup Technology

The total consideration paid for BTL is £23m, satisfied through an initial consideration of £17.5m in cash and £3.5m from the issue of 1,205,857 new ordinary shares. A further deferred consideration of £2.0m is payable in cash on 31 January 2014.



Based in Leeds, BTL boasts an impressive customer portfolio of 200 enterprise clients including Siemens, British Red Cross, Lloyds Register, Suzuki and Pernod Ricard as well as Liverpool and Everton football clubs. Established in 2005 BTL now protects many Petabytes of data for clients. BTL has been a leader in cloud backup up since it was founded and has established a solid, well regarded, growing business providing an increasingly important element of a business's IT infrastructure.



For the twelve months ended 31 December 2012, BTL delivered turnover of £5.2m with an EBITDA1 of £2.4m and net assets of £2.3m. The cash consideration will be financed out of new banking facilities and the acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing before acquisition costs and normal acquisition adjustments including any fair value adjustments and the amortisation of intangible assets.



Current Trading

Trading in the first half of the year remains strong, with revenue and profits substantially ahead of the comparative period last year and in line with current consensus market expectations.



The Group continues to successfully execute on its focussed growth strategy of providing high quality and high margin managed solutions to corporate customers. With an expanding range of cloud services, through both organic and acquisitive means, iomart continues to build its reputation as the UK's leading cloud computing company.



Today's acquisition of BTL follows the acquisition earlier this month of dedicated server provider, Redstation, and the early integration of that business is progressing as planned.



Customer demand for iomart's services remains strong and growing, as the market increasingly shifts toward the provision of products and services over the internet. Strong market drivers, combined with high levels of visibility and customer renewals, leaves the Board optimistic for continued success.



Angus MacSween, Chief Executive of iomart, stated: "We are pleased with the continuing strong performance of iomart. The addition of BTL to the Group will further broaden and diversify our cloud-based offerings and enhance our position in the market. I look forward to the second half of the year and remain very confident in the growth prospects of the business."



Banking Facility



The cash consideration for the acquisition of BTL has been financed by a £35m debt package from Bank of Scotland made up of a £15m Term Loan and a £20m Revolving Credit Facility. Of the total facilities of £35m the company has drawn down £32.5m. £14m of this has been used to repay existing bank facilities and the balance has been used to finance the acquisition.



The Board believes the willingness of Bank of Scotland to provide the debt further underlines the Group's strong attractiveness to lenders.



The net debt position of the Company following this transaction will be approximately £26m. The Board anticipates that the cash generative nature of the existing business which will be further enhanced by this acquisition will enable all debt service metrics to be met and allow the Group to repay debt going forwards as it falls due.



Additional Listing



Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares, which will rank pari passu with the existing shares in issue, to be admitted to trading on AIM, and admission is expected to become effective on 4 October 2013. The Company's total issued share capital after the admission of the new ordinary shares will be 107,786,339 ordinary shares. There are 140,773 ordinary shares in the iomart Group plc Employee Benefit Trust and the Company holds 1,023,453 of its ordinary shares in treasury. Therefore the total number of ordinary shares with voting rights in the Company is 106,622,113. This figure of 106,622,113 ordinary shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.



Notice of results



The Group expects to report half yearly results for the six months ending 30 September 2013 on 10th December 2013.