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iomart Group plc
LSE: IOM
Industrycloud computing
information technology
Founded1998 (1998)
FounderAngus MacSween
Headquarters
6 Atlantic Quay, 55 Robertson Street, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 8JD
,
Scotland
ProductsManaged cloud services
Number of employees
405
Websitewww.iomart.com

iomart Group plc is a Scottish information technology and cloud computing company which provides managed services from data centres and offices across the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1998 by entrepreneur Angus MacSween.

The group takes its name from a derivation of the Gaelic word iomairt (IPA: [ˈimərˠʃt̪]) meaning enterprise. iomart offered the first consumer broadband connection in the United Kingdom, and was the first broadband reseller through its Madasafish brand. Headquartered in Glasgow, iomart operated a call centre in Stornoway which today is still operating and owned by Talk Talk. The company was floated on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market AIM in 2000.

As of September 2015, iomart owns and manages data centres in eight locations. iomart Group operates a number of different brands including Melbourne Server Hosting[1] which serves the SME market, Backup Technology[2] which provides cloud backup, disaster recovery and business continuity, as well as Easyspace, RapidSwitch and Redstation.

As of March 2020, iomart employs 405 staff, two-thirds of whom are based at its offices in the West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow. Reece Donovan became the CEO of Iomart in October 2020.[3]

History[edit]

iomart was founded in 1998 as an integrated internet and telecommunications company by former Scottish Telecom senior executives Angus MacSween and Bill Dobbie.[4][5] In 1999 the company received its first revenue from the launch of its business service in conjunction with Richard Branson's Virginbiz.net.[4]

In 2000 iomart Group incorporated and floated on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market AIM. Through its Madasafish brand iomart offered the first UK consumer broadband connection. It also launched Scottish consumer Internet Service Provider, Jings![6] In the same year iomart launched the UK's first outsourced large-scale email hosting platform, ThinkMail.[7]

In 2002 the Telco businesses were sold for £2 million to Centrica and in 2003 the group acquired Web Genie Internet Ltd[8] for £437 thousand.

In 2004 iomart bought web hosting brand easyspace for £12m as well as hosting and domain company Internetters for £250k. In 2005 it launched the UK business directory Ufindus and launches the Netintelligence Managed Services Platform.

2006 saw the launch of Netintelligence as the world's first security Software as a Service product.[9]

In 2007 the group bought its first four data centres across the UK.

In 2008 iomart sold Ufindus to BT for £20m.[10] The following year iomart acquired dedicated server hosting specialist RapidSwitch for £5.5m.

In 2011 iomart were awarded First UK Kitemark for Online Child Safety. The company also acquired Titan Internet for £4.2m, Switch Media for £1.25m, Global Gold for £1.2m, and EQSN for £2.5m.

In Autumn 2012 iomart Group made a multimillion-pound investment in creating its own resilient dedicated fibre network to connect its data centres. The group also went on to acquire Melbourne Server Hosting for £7m and launched Host Your Kit youth football campaign.

In 2013 the company made two more acquisitions, Redstation for £8m and Backup Technology for £23m.[11]

In 2014 the company expanded further with new data centre and infrastructure operations on the east and west coasts of the US[12] plus a £multi-million extension of their existing Maidenhead data centre. At the end of 2014 the company made an announcement that they had acquired rival cloud service provider ServerSpace to further expand the group.

In 2015 the company made two more acquisitions, the Cloud Consultany; SystemsUp for a deal worth around £13m and United Hosting in December, in a deal worth up to £11m. In 2015, iomart was also identified as responsible for 14% of all the spam originating in the UK.[13]

In 2017, iomart acquired cloud infrastructure provider DediServe in a €7.9M deal.[14]

In September 2018, iomart acquired Bytemark.[15]

In February 2020, iomart acquired the cloud division of ServerChoice Limited for an initial consideration of £2.1m with a further maximum consideration of £0.9m.[16]

In March 2020, iomart acquired Memset Limited for an initial consideration of £3.3m with a further maximum consideration of £0.9m.[16]

Promotional campaigns[edit]

In 2010 iomart launched the "Racks 4 Acres. Powering the Cloud. Preserving the Clouds" campaign.[17] Working with environmental charity Rainforest Concern, the group sponsored an acre of Ecuadorian cloud rainforest to mitigate the additional megawatts of power that is consumed within their data centres. Following this, iomart launched the "#Savethecloud365" campaign with their partner Microsoft. iomart pledged to donate £3 to Rainforest Concern for every Office 365 licence they sold during 2015.[18] In addition, iomart is also giving tablets to forest rangers working for Rainforest Concern in the Cloud Forest in Ecuador.[18] "Host Your Kit" is a scheme for UK youth teams to have sports strips provided by iomart. In 2012, over 500 youth football teams entered the competition.[19]

Products and services[edit]

iomart offers cloud and managed hosting services, including colocation, connectivity, data protection, managed security, private cloud, hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, managed Azure, virtual desktop infrastructure, and professional services.

Hosted Desktop[edit]

iomart were the first UK cloud service provider to deliver their VDI platform which allows them to integrate and deliver an enterprise Windows 7 desktop experience with Microsoft Office 2010 for collaborative working.[20] Their customers can choose between a private, hybrid or managed cloud platform solution to host their virtual desktops.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Keighron-Foster, Daniel (16 August 2012). "iomart Group acquires hosting company Melbourne". manchestereveningnews.com. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  2. ^ Glenday, John. "Iomart Group purchases Backup Technology in £23m deal". thedrum.com. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  3. ^ Savvas, Antony (15 June 2021). "iomart reports a stagnant cloud services year". ITEuropa. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b Fitzgerald, Neil (5 December 2000). "Trailblazers in their Sphere". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  5. ^ Williams-Grutt, Oscar (1 October 2013). "Tech entrepreneur Angus MacSween nets millions with iomart stake sale". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  6. ^ "By Jings! Iomart launch an ISP for new Scotland". The Scotsman. 18 October 2000. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  7. ^ "Iomart launches email innovation". The Scotsman. 17 January 2001. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  8. ^ "Company Overview of Web Genie Internet Ltd". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  9. ^ Smith, Mark (17 November 2006). "Iomart sees solid rise on back of net security product". The Herald. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  10. ^ Armitage, Alex (9 July 2008). "BT Buys Iomart's Ufindus Directories Unit for 20 Million Pounds". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  11. ^ Cameron, Greig (23 October 2013). "Iomart buys data firm in its biggest-ever takeover". The Herald. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  12. ^ "iomart buys ServerSpace". Business Cloud News. Business Cloud News. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  13. ^ "Threat Report 2015 Q2 | Cloudmark". www.cloudmark.com. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Final Results for the Year Ended 31 March 17 | iomart Group PLC - Iomart Group PLC".
  15. ^ "Bytemark is now part of iomart Group plc". Bytemark Hosting. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  16. ^ a b "Pre-close trading statement for year ended 31 March 2020 - Iomart Group plc". www.iomart.com. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  17. ^ "iomart Hosting Launches Racks 4 Acres Campaign to Support Rainforest Preservation". scotlandis.com. ScotlandIS. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  18. ^ a b "iomart Office 365 campaign supports rainforest charity". charitytechnews. 18 March 2015.
  19. ^ "iomart Hosting Celebrates Start of Olympics by Announcing Host Your Kit winners". findcloudhost.com.
  20. ^ "iomartcloud and Paragon Development Systems (PDS) to Deliver Backup to the Cloud Services Based on VMware vSphere Data Protection™ 5.5 Advanced". vmware.com (Press release). vmware. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014. {{cite press release}}: External link in |ref= (help)
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