Cloud Activ8 is a multi-site, multi-cloud tool. It allows us to bring on board customers, no matter where they are globally, and move their data from different vendors.
The tool allows you to start small, grow and then diversify across clouds and reduce if you need to. It gives people the flexibility – without tying them into contracts, platforms or vendors – to move from system to system or platform to platform with their original data.
Automating human skills
Fundamentally, Cloud Activ8 provides all the skills and requirements that are needed to be able to build systems. When a founder is trying to build a startup, they're focussed on what the startup can deliver, and not on the infrastructure that's required for it to be built on.
Founders don't necessarily have the skills for networking, security, cloud deployment or security, for example, needed for growth. Cloud Activ8 takes those skills and turns them into automation buttons so that you don't need the skill sets, you just need to know what you want. It's all about taking human skill and automating it.
OVHcloud’s multi-cloud platform: a perfect fit
It took us about a year and a half to build Cloud Activ8. For around 8 months of that, we were part of OVHcloud’s startup programme. Financially and technically, it helped us build the platforms that we needed.
The startup programme was of immense value because it not only gave us resources, but also access to platforms while we were building and developing our startup capability.
Driving startup growth
For startups, the beginning is all about going to market in a cost effective way, while trying to not build a very expensive system. But as you grow, your customers are more discerning and they require your systems to live on enterprise platforms. If you can't give them that, then you're going to lag behind the competition. OVHcloud is a good platform, not only from a secure, cost-effective capability, but there's demand for it as well.
It’s a very well-kept secret because it allows you to access not only virtual private servers, but also private networks and private clouds all within one network, which is very unusual. It allows you to utilise all the systems from end to end without having to build complex interactions. OVH has multiple capabilities, and as a multi-cloud discipline, it was a good platform for us to integrate with other clouds.
Automation is the way forward
The pandemic has changed things the way people work, and the way they use IT. There were places in the past where you were only ever allowed to access information from the office – that's gone out the window. Telephony is not a piece of plastic on your desk anymore; it's anywhere that you want it. IT has fundamentally changed and managers in small and medium businesses – not only in startups – are struggling to adapt
But people need to focus more on their business, rather than on their IT. People are spending a lot of time and effort on their IT that they shouldn't be. Their business needs an automation platform that understands what they need and then delivers it.
Gus Barrett is the director of Virso, an alumni of the OVHcloud startup programme
