Continent 8 Technologies has grown its regulated and community public cloud offering ,both in terms of locations and capability. And as we have done so, we face the reality of economic headwinds in both hardware and software licensing, as well as wanting to differentiate our high-touch customer culture, and security by design approach.
Therefore, we are making some changes to our cloud portfolio offering, changing pricing where we must, but adding value where we can, to provide a best-in-class high-value offering to our customers.
We are increasing prices for public cloud resources, whilst adding Edge Cloud to support virtual server, Network as a Service Edge (NaaS), CDN capability and support future container-only deployments and further up-the-stack managed offerings.
We are removing optional “Product” customer support as an uplift fee, and baking this into our service inclusively for all new or renewal subscriptions – all customers will benefit from our trained, certified, and dedicated support team access.
We are deprecating our “FLEXIBLE” model of public cloud subscription for primary public cloud, moving all subscriptions to “COMMITTED”, utilising the FLEXIBLE model for secondary business continuity use for all new or renewal subscriptions. The relative discount in COMMITTED versus FLEXIBLE will remain.
Due to the growth in our network and internet capacity and capability, we are bringing down the cost of per GB bandwidth charged to customers in all locations for all new or renewal subscriptions.
We have created committed bandwidth tiers allowing customers to fix their bandwidth fee costs and achieve greater savings through that commitment.
We are bundling WaaP (WAF) protection licensing within our public cloud, on top of the existing DDoS mitigation included, to offer full L3-7 protection.
To summarise, for all new and renewing customers;
Continent 8 faces the same economic challenges as many businesses, with increases in costs for co-location space and power, technology hardware and software licensing as well as other inflationary pressures. As a result, we have no choice but to pass on as little as we can of these costs to customers in resource fees.
Being customer-focussed and high touch is part of our culture and values, therefore committing to provide product support from the outset inclusively differentiates us from the public cloud market. We also acknowledge that the majority of our customers want the certainty and budgeting ease of committed cloud resources and bandwidth.
Adding additional cyber-protection capabilities leverages our own growth in capability and allows customers to benefit from the investments we have made in providing security services to protect customers infrastructure and technology.
Growing our bandwidth capacity for not just world class peering and reachability, but also DDoS mitigation, we can pass on savings in our reduced per GB bandwidth costs.
New pricing is in effect for all new quotes and renewals undertaken through our RSD and CSM teams. To benefit from the additional services and lower bandwidth pricing we encourage existing customers to look at how they can benefit from earlier commitment to renewal.
By adding WaaP (WAF) to new and actively renewing customers we are taking a secure by design and delivery approach to our customers infrastructure. As we have added NaaS services such as Firewalling and Advanced Threat (IDS / IPS) capabilities we are proud to offer customers the benefits of our investments in cyber protection.
Remember, all Continent 8 public cloud services are;
To learn more about the changes and take advantage of the new bundled capabilities and pricing benefits, please contact your Regional Sales Director or Customer Success Manager.
As many regions are beginning to consider ongoing infection control measures this is a summary update on the current situation for all operations at Continent 8.
Operations:
• All data centres have remained in full operation throughout the pandemic; including those with limited or restricted access.
All service levels continue to be maintained and our services, global support teams and supporting staff are unaffected and continue to take additional measures to operate safely.
Physical Site Access:
UPDATE: Face coverings
• A large number of 3rd party data centres are now strongly recommending or, in a limited number of locations, mandating that visitors wear face coverings or masks during their visit. In locations where face coverings are already required by local Governmental mandates the providers require face coverings at all times.
• In the majority of locations providers are providing non-medical-grade masks for visitors where supplies allow, however we encourage visitors to bring their own face covering whenever possible. According to guidance from the CDC, a cloth face covering can include a scarf, bandana, or cloth that covers the nose and mouth. Cloth face coverings should:
o Fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face
o Be secured with ties or ear loops
o Allow for breathing without restriction
o Be able to be laundered and machine dried without damage or change to shape
• Face covering requirements at Continent 8 owned data centres will follow local Governmental guidance as they are issued in each region.
• Please verify the status of specific sites when seeking / arranging any access.
General site access
• Restrictions on people movements and requirements for social distance and isolation are now well established, and continue to affect visitors to sites.
• To minimise the risk of operational impact and for the health and safety of your employees, our employees, site security and our communities, we advise:
o A small number of our 3rd party data centres remain unable to permit visitors. Where possible, all activity should be executed utilising remote hands services (see below).
o One of our 3rd party facilities in Malta is restricting visits to emergency only and requires a minimum of 72hrs notice.
o For those locations which remain accessible there is an appointment approach being taken – to manage people movements and to ensure social distancing can be achieved. Access request can be made in the usual manner via Support along with the requested days / times. Support will revert to confirm availability and that access is arranged or suggest alternatives.
o Any Data Centre access requests must be for critical works only
o The latest specific details for a particular site can be obtained from support@continent8.com
Remote Hands Services
• Remain available at all sites, however their use should continue to be restricted to business-critical operations only where possible. This is to manage demand, ensure availability and reduce length of wait in busy sites.
New installations / project work
• If there is an urgent planned installation or project delivery (non-critical) please approach and discuss with your account manager in order that this can be accommodated and managed to minimise risk for all. We would encourage you to undertake any such work utilising Remote Hands wherever possible.
As the global situation continues to evolve we are updating our previous notifications with the latest information at this time.
We wish to assure you that all data centres are currently in full operation, including those with limited or restricted access.
The restrictions on people movements and requirements for social distance and isolation, both locally and globally are naturally now having an effect on visitors to sites.
Many of Continent 8’s geographical locations have closed their borders, implemented restrictions on gatherings and a number are employing curfews, all of which are having effects for any potential visitor to a C8 data centre.
To minimise the risk of operational impact and for the health and safety of your employees, our employees, site security and our communities, we now advise that:
We thank you for your continued understanding at this time.
Following yesterday’s update, over the past 24 hours, a number of our co-location partners have implemented additional steps to manage and reduce physical risk at their data centre sites, whilst maintaining availability and service.
At this time all sites are operating normally and remote hands services remain available at all sites.
Revised data centre access arrangements
To minimise the risk of operational impact and for the health and safety of your employees, our employees, site security and our communities, we now ask that customers adhere to the following guidelines:
Customers that have a critical need to access data centres should only do so if they:
The goal of this change is to reduce risk, amount of traffic whilst maintaining service and availability for critical site access.
If there is an urgent planned installation or project delivery (non-critical) please approach and discuss with your account manager in order that this can be accommodated and managed to minimise risk for all.
Please note that this is a fluid and evolving situation; current procedures and guidelines may be changed at any time by our partners.
We thank you for your continued understanding at this time.
Continent 8 continues to monitor, respond and adapt to the rapidly changing global COVID-19 outbreak. As a further update to the previous guidance issued on Thursday 12th March a status and response update is below:-
Current status
Planning considerations
We are continuing to monitor developments on a daily basis and will continue to update guidance as necessary.
Should you have any queries, please contact Continent 8 Support at:
Phone: Europe + 44 1624 694611 or North America + 1 514 461 5111
Email: support@continent8.com
In light of ongoing developments regarding the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) we wanted to share the latest information regarding our response to this developing situation – both corporately and practically.
Please be advised that we are taking the situation very seriously; the health and safety of our customers, our employees and our partners is our primary concern.
There have been a number of additional developments in the past 48 hours at key sites for Continent 8 and varying travel and quarantine restrictions continue to be imposed by Governments globally. We remain following the direction of the World Health Organisation and guidance of the local health authorities in the jurisdictions we operate to ensure we are best placed to minimise any potential effects.
Continent 8 has robust business continuity plans in place to provide direction to our teams in the event that the COVID-19 virus poses a health and safety threat to our customers, partners or employees, or otherwise threatens our ability to effectively deliver services.
As a global business with geographically separated teams we have extensive remote and teleworking capability. Our plans therefore allow for scenarios such as the current one unfolding where remote working may become mandatory. In the past 24hrs additional controls have been placed by the Governments of Malta and Ireland to which we are adhering in full. At this stage neither are expected to have any effect on service or service availability.
Local site access and remote hands services will, subject to any location or Government imposed lockdowns, remain available too. This situation is currently unlikely to change, however if there are any further developments we will advise all customers in any affected location.
We have a number of contingency plans underway in readiness, such as:-
At this time all Continent 8 customer-facing data centres are reporting as operating normally, with a number of heightened awareness and additional control measures in place based on regional guidance.
At our partner sites, there are varying additional controls and measures in place. These range from enhanced hygiene through to temperature verification, travel history checks and, at a small number of sites, mandatory wearing of protective masks. Guidance in some locations is changing daily.
Continent 8 continues to monitor the situation closely and, should new guidelines or precautions from any Government or health organisational body be recommended, we will implement immediately.
If you require any further information regarding the COVID-19 infection and to reduce exposure to the illness, please follow the below link to the World Health Organisation website.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019