2013 is already under way and we are starting to see customers playing catchup on those projects they delayed from last year for all sorts of reasons, from the recession through to the Mayan calendar “end of the world” scenario, that was just as big a non event as the Y2K myth!

No sooner are we all back at work though than the snow starts and businesses already start to suffer. What was the cost to your business of Friday’s snow day?  How will you cope with another 2-3 days of disruption?

I bet your phones were quiet, sales enquiries were low and probably just as well as your staff were unable to get into the office. Those who did make it in were then sent home early because as always, the wrong kind of snow on the lines and the trains and buses all gave up the ghost.

There is a better way, and a way that you can empower your staff to work remotely – or that you can manage the business remotely while you’re taking a well earned break.

I’ve previously blogged about how we can make the Cloud work for you.

• In March 2012 I touched on how you could ensure the Olympic restrictions didn’t impact your business – as well as how Internet Telephony (or VoIP) is a real technology, working for businesses today and not just Science Fiction!
• In April 2012 I wrote saying how the Cloud can save money and save the environment
• In May 2012 I wrote about how the cloud can save money without compromising on quality

Well this month I’ve blogged about how the massive disruption the UK experienced due to the snow on Friday had absolutely no impact on our offices, despite the fact 80-90% of our staff were snowed in and would have found it difficult to make it into the office had we not already planned for such contingencies.

If you want to free your business from the shackles of the fixed telephony or IT systems, then talk to FidoNet today and we will help set you free! The cost savings of not needing such a large office, or having to maintain an antiquated telephone system (no more maintenance contracts, leasing arrangements, tired old kit, out dated software, annual Software update payments and so forth).

Fido’s Cloud Solutions bring you the latest software licenses, the latest operating systems and the best cost saving techniques without all the hassles.

Interested? (Well who wouldn’t be interested in saving money and getting the latest proven tech?)

Contact our sales team for free on 0800 920 2000 and find out how we can help your business.

FidoNet are pleased to announce that with immediate effect customers can now buy the YouView Video On Demand box for use on the Fido Network.

YouView gives you extraordinary TV, over 75 channels, on demand films, catchup TV, NOW TV (the new way to watch Sky Movies on demand) and much more!

Check out our new YouView pages for more information.

Also – limited time offer for launch – save 10% when buying online from Fido with offercode YOUVIEW

New improved spam filtering coming soon from Fido!

We are in the final stages of testing of our new, improved Spam Filtering and Anti Virus service, and things have been going better than expected! So far we’ve have 0 spam and a 0.0013% false positive rate (just over 1.3 per 100,000 emails) – and that’s out of the box, with no customisation!

We’re looking for beta testers to help us perform the final customisations and tests. If you’re interested please complete the signup form and we’ll be in touch to set you up and add your domains / mailboxes into the system.

Interested in learning more, but want a solution you can White Label and re-sell to your customers? Look no further! The web interface is fully configurable and can be easily customised with your colour scheme and logos. Add your own URLs and even your own MX records!

Multi lingual support in the control panel, inbound and outbound filtering (so you can configure this as your own smarthost and stop worrying accidental spamming) and also email archiving support for legal compliance (or just peace of mind!) requirements.

Training / Reporting spam couldn’t be easier.  Just drag and drop the annoying email into the web interface and you’re done!

FidoNet are delighted to announce that having beaten very stiff competition, they were crowned the ISPA Best Large Business Hosting Provider for 2012 at the ISPA Awards ceremony at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London on July 3rd 2012.

Nominations were taken from all UK hosting providers and ISPA members, vetted and tested over a period of several months before being short listed and voted on by a panel of Industry leaders.”

“It is wonderful to be recognised by our peers in the Industry for the services we provide, especially services which are so close to our heart as Managed Hosting for Large Business, and also to make it to Finalists for Best Fixed Line Business Broadband“, said Managing Director Jon Morby, “Winning Best Large Business Hosting Provider is a definite honour with this being one of the hardest fought categories with some real heavy weights including FastNet, Stratogen and Netcetera in the running.”

According to the ISPA judges, “FidoNet’s pre-sales consultation, load balancing and description of blending in as one of their customers IT department gave them the edge”

Dedicated Server hosting starts from just £85 per month, and FidoNet have the ability and experience to scale solutions to many hundreds of servers if required.  Host with FidoNet for total peace of mind, and the knowledge that you will never need to move again!

Virtual Server hosting (cloud hosting) starts from as little as just £5.83 per month and again are almost infinitely scalable.

Whether you need load balancing, redundant failover, multi site clustering or just a single server, FidoNet have a solution for your business needs.  Contact our UK based sales team for more information and to discuss your individual requirements on 0800 920 2000

Receiving the Award

The ISPA 2012 Best Large Business Hosting Provider judging criteria were very tough with nominees needing to meet and surpass the following areas

Judging Criteria: 

• Hours of support
• Hardware redundancy of each level
• Provision of protected private network
• Firewall protection
• Security measures at data centre(s)
• Patch management process
• Guarantees for connecting servers to the Internet
• Peering arrangements with other ISPs
• Number of IP addresses offered
• Guaranteed service level agreements
• Ease for customers to change to different bandwidth level and any costs involved
• Data back-up services
• Mirrored hosting services
• Power supply, reboot and administration options
• Flexibility: Can size of site change without financial penalty or being tied into a contract?
• Payment options
• Price and value for money
• Server redundancy – availability of ‘hot’ replacement
• Patch management process
• Virtualisation and cloud computing capabilities
• Provides IPv6 Address
• Availability and speed of service

About The ISPA Awards:

The ISPAs – the UK Internet industry awards – are unique as they are awarded to people and organisations in the industry following rigorous testing and an independent judging process and reflect the broad nature of the internet service provider sector.

The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA UK) has been organising the UK Internet Industry Awards since 1999 to herald the best of the Internet industry and to celebrate innovation and best practice. In 2002 the BBC dubbed the awards “The ISPAs”.

There are a number of new features, security enhancements and updates in the new look Fido Control Panel, not to mention a simplified user interface!

Additions include

• a new Affiliate System making it even easier to earn rewards and real cash by referring Fido to your friends.
• Simplified Look and Feel
• Faster Performance with nginx support
• FastCGI now default PHP handler
• Support for Plesk 11
• More cloud hosting options
• Improved Security
• Easier access and management of SSL certificates
• Simpler shopping cart and Store integration

Signup up is easy.  Simply click on the url you receive by email, enter your bank details, and an agreement is sent to your bank.  Payment then appears on your account in a matter of days.

This is an ideal solution for everyone, and we can help you integrate this into one of your solutions.  We are now also using GoCardless ourselves to process bank payments.  As always, we practice what we preach!

Customers often ask if there is any way they can benefit from recommending Fido to their friends (other than the warm and fluffy feeling they get from helping a friend obviously!) … we’ve always had an affiliate programme, however it has we admit been a bit “klunky” requiring individual registrations, and knowing what you’ve earned has always been difficult to identify.

Today all that changes. Now every Fido customer is automatically registered as an affiliate and can earn real cash which can either be credited to your account to reduce your hosting bills, or be withdrawn by PayPal™  as real hard cash!

All you have to do is log into your (all new) Fido Control Panel and click on the Account Tab at the top of the page, and then select Campaigns List under the “Affiliate Programme” section at the bottom of the page.

This will then show a list of campaigns which you’re eligible to join, and provide you with some ready made banners.  Simply choose the scheme(s) which suit you best, add them into rotation on your website and sit back and get ready to earn cash!

Some schemes pay a flat commission (such as 3% on Shared Web Hosting and VPS sales), some pay a specific finders fee (like Broadband where you can earn up to £25 for an introduction!) and more.

There has never been a better or easier time to earn with Fido, and being Fido you know that your friends will be well looked after!

More information at the ISPA Awards website

The awards ceremony is on July 3rd when we will find out who the winners are this year

Simply use the offer code JUBILEE to receive 60% off on shared hosting, virtual servers and other selected plans before midnight on the 6th June 2012.

By connecting fiber directly to your office, we are able to provide super fast speeds of up to 100Mbit down and up to 20Mbit up directly to your business.  Finally super fast broadband speeds which are suitable for business use!

Please use the checker on www.fido.net/broadband/ to see if this the ultimate Broadband experience is available in your area.

Prices start from just £75/mo for up to 100Mbit connectivity.  Order today!