Ted's Cameras moves to the cloud

WorldNet subsidiary minimises skills base, deploys in two weeks

Australian camera retailer Ted’s Cameras has moved to the cloud after implementing Microsoft Online Services (MOS), with 80 stores nationwide making the transition.

WorldNet, the subsidiary that provides IT for the Ted's Cameras group, spoke to CIO Australia about the move to the cloud with managing director, Darren Osborne, saying it was a decision based on the changing conditions of the group’s workforce.

“We were looking to minimise our skill base in the IT department as opposed to up-skilling them,” he said. “By using a cloud solution, it allowed us to not get too heavily involved in specific high-tech responsibilities.”

Osborne said MOS was implemented to address the organisations’ multiple IT needs, and that moving to the cloud with Microsoft was an easy decision.

“We had a look around but [as an] industry standard, people know how to use it and we didn’t have to retrain our staff on how to use Outlook or anything like that,” he said. “There were [only] some minimal requirements for training and education.”

With the planning behind the move taking six months and the deployment taking two weeks, Osborne said Ted's Cameras move to the cloud was “seamless” but not focused exclusively on a ROI.

“If you add in the buying of hardware and having more staff to run all of these applications, there is possibly an ROI,” he said. “But it wasn’t figured into the decision as much as the ability not to have too many people on seats running the IT department.”

With over 145 seats now implemented, WorldNet’s move to the cloud has been the first step in a wider deployment of Microsoft technologies.

“Microsoft being an industry standard operating system and applications [means that its been] easy to understand,” he said. “We’re just starting to look at Live Meetings and shared calendars and things like that.”

Osborne's insights come as Corporate Express recently revealed it had signed up for a full virtualisation project, with plans to take on MPLS and cloud-based email.

For more on Cloud, visit the Cloud computing section.


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