Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 12 | Page 9

NEWS Redstor steps up bid to treble revenue by expanding into mainland Europe R edstor, a leading cloud data management SaaS business, is targeting mainland Europe as part of aggressive growth plans to treble business by 2020. Van Wieren, who is based in the Amsterdam area, aims to capitalise on the growing interest shown in Redstor as the company continues to disrupt the world of data management. The appointment of Gerrit-Jan van Wieren as Channel Director for Benelux and Nordics underlines Redstor’s long-term strategy to accelerate revenue on the continent. He will be looking to make rapid strides in the booming European data management market by significantly adding to Redstor’s 350 partners. Initially focusing on the Netherlands, the Benelux country with the largest market and highest adoption of cloud data management, Van Wieren said: “There is a large concentration of businesses and companies from all over the world around Amsterdam, Enschede, Groningen and Utrecht, as well as similar technology hubs in Antwerp, Brussels and Luxembourg. “For managed service providers, it is vital to select the best product for customers – and more often than not, when those customers become aware of how good a product is, they wish they’d had it earlier. “We have a very good product fit and there is a lot of opportunity. My biggest challenge is to reach as many organisations as soon as possible,” said Van Wieren. ////////////////// Utrecht to become the Netherlands’ first Gigacity in 2020 U trecht will be the first city in the Netherlands to access VodafoneZiggo’s new superfast fixed Gigabit network from 2020. VodafoneZiggo will offer residents access to Gigabit speeds via the existing cable network, using Docsis 3.1 technology – ensuring high-speed Internet, a more stable connection and better security. The business community, government institutions and healthcare institutions will also benefit, giving doctors, for example, the ability to hold consultations with patients who are ill at home via Virtual Reality. offering unprecedented new opportunities, starting with Gigabit in Utrecht and following the rest of the Netherlands.” Jan van Zanen, the Mayor of Utrecht, added: “With the arrival of VodafoneZiggo and the construction of this network of the future, we can further develop the innovation of our digital infrastructure and create new opportunities through collaboration to take steps together in the field of smart digital security solutions on the street, or to speed up and improve the contact between doctor and patient.” In recent years, Internet use among households has grown by 40- 50% each year – and is expected to continue to grow exponentially in the years to come, requiring more and more network capacity. The new network will soon reach Internet speeds of five Gigabit per second for download and one Gigabit per second for uploading – replacing current speeds to speeds of between 150 and 200 Megabits per second. Jeroen Hoencamp said: “VodafoneZiggo wants to offer a ‘network of the future’ from 2020, in which mobile and fixed connections are closer together: films, videos, music and photos can be downloaded, uploaded and streamed in record time; five times faster than now, INTELLIGENTCIO 9 www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com 9