Lumison uses cloud to offer Microsoft OCS

Lumison is extending its managed services using a private cloud model

Business ISP Lumison is to expand its private virtual cloud-based offerings by providing a new Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 managed service to customers.

Lumison is positioning Microsoft's popular unified communications product as a PBX replacement, combining instant messaging, presence, voice, video conferencing and desktop collaboration.

"To date it has been quite an expensive technology to deploy, requiring six servers per customer. But we have flattened that to four virtual machines, giving a significant cost benefit to customers," said Lumison chief executive Aydin Kurt-Elli.

"At the moment we are targeting tech savvy professional services businesses where end users are more likely to be younger and more used to the desktop experience. The real value is in the seamless experience; moving from instant messaging to phone to video in one click."

Lumison's private cloud architecture is built with Microsoft virtualisation technologies, including Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Kurt-Elli added that the private cloud model has enabled the firm to extend its managed services offerings, and meet the needs of customers with strict compliance and security requirements.

"Some existing [public] cloud players are being rather opaque about their security model, so a private cloud allows us to differentiate," he said.

"When you look at Google, Microsoft and Amazon slogging it out in the large-scale cloud environments, we asked why build a me-too offering? A private virtual cloud is essentially an extension of the managed hosting conversation."