What is InsightCloud? InsightCloud is a web portal enabling Insight customers to purchase and provision a wide range of Cloud services in a straightforward and convenient manner. What is SaaS? Software as a Service (SaaS) is a means of delivering software over the internet. It is widely believed that by 2011 25% of new business software will be delivered as a service. What are the benefits of SaaS?»» Add / remove users quickly and easily»» Automatic software upgrades»» No need for expensive infrastructure hardware and servers»» Removes the need for in-house IT support»» All user data backed up as standard»» Virus and spam protection built in»» Enhanced mobility and reduced carbon footprint What is the InsightCloud? The InsightCloud Hosted Desktop is a remotely hosted desktop which can be accessed via a web browser. Users can log onto their InsightCloud Hosted Desktop from any PC or suitable mobile device and access their favourite software applications and data in a secure and convenient fashion. Can clients try before they buy? Yes. Insight offers a 30 day free trial for users of InsightCloud. For customers wanting a 30 day live trail please visit and click on the FREE 30 Day Trial Tab. Can clients get a live demonstration of the product? Yes. One of our Cloud Sales Specialist will be happy to set up a demonstration of the service. Either click on the contact us form on or call 08444 723 828
Data How do I upload existing mail? Within the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop users can copy or move documents from their local drives to their desktop at any time using familiar tools such as drag & drop and cut & paste. Local drives are automatically mapped into and accessible from a users InsightCloud Hosted Desktop. Geographically, where is my data held? InsightCloud services are run from a primary datacentre in London Docklands with data being backed up to a secondary datacentre. Both datacentres are PCI DSS and SAS 70 accredited. Is there a size limit to uploads? There is no limitation on the size and number of files which can be uploaded to the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop. However, you should be aware that uploading large volumes of data may adversely affect others users in the same location if insufficient bandwidth is available. Can I upload data in bulk? In some instances, bulk data upload is not practical over the internet due to bandwidth limitations. In this instance data can be transferred to portable disc and manually transferred to InsightCloud as an additional chargeable service. For more details on this please visit and visit the Cloud Services tab. Is my data secure? Please see the next two sections regarding Privacy and Security
Privacy Who owns the data that my organisation transfers to Insight Cloud? To put it simply, Insight does not own client s data. We do not take a position on whether the data belongs to the institution signing up for InsightCloud, or the individual user (that s between the two of you), but we know it doesn t belong to us! The data which you put into our systems is yours, and we believe it should stay that way. We think that means two key things. 1. We won t share the data with others except as noted in our Privacy Policy. 2. You should be able to take your data with you if you choose to use external services in conjunction with InsightCloud or stop using our services altogether. When can Insight employees access my account? Insight employees will access your account s data only when an administrator from your organisation grants InsightCloud Support Team explicit permission to do so for troubleshooting purposes. During the course of troubleshooting an issue or other investigation, the InsightCloud Support Team may ask for the creation of a test administrator account, solely to be used to resolve the particular issue at hand. Insight employees or automated systems may also take down any content that violates the Terms of Service. Who can gain access to an InsightCloud administrator account? By default, one administrator account is created per organisation. It is the responsibility of the administrator to create, amend and delete user accounts. Insight employees may not access administrator accounts except as described in Insight s Privacy Policy. Who can gain access to my end-user s accounts? A client s InsightCloud administrators can access all end-user accounts and the associated data. The InsightCloud administrator has control of all user names and passwords within an organisation. Insight employees may not access end-user accounts except as described in Insight s Privacy Policy.
Privacy Does Insight give third parties access to my client s data? Insight does not share or reveal private user content such as email or personal information with third parties except as required by law, on request by a user or system administrator, or to protect our systems. These exceptions include requests by users that InsightCloud Support Team can access their email messages in order to diagnose problems; when Insight is required by law to do so; and when we are compelled to disclose personal information because we reasonably believe its necessary in order to protect the rights, property or safety of Insight, its users and the public. For full details, please refer to the Information Sharing section of our Privacy Policy. What kind of scanning/indexing of user data is done? User content is only scanned or indexed in the following cases to provide you with a high-quality service.»» Some user data is scanned and indexed so users can search for information in their own InsightCloud accounts.»» Data is scanned so we can perform virus detection. We do not scan or index data for any other purposes. Our scanning and indexing procedures are automated and involve no human interaction. How long does Insight keep my organisation s data? Customer data is only retained on the platform for the duration of the customer contract and for the purposes of backup and recovery. How does Insight handle law enforcement requests? Insight complies with valid legal process. It is Insight s policy to notify users before turning over their data whenever possible and legally permissible. How does Insight process objectionably illegal content? Insight will take down malware, pornography, child pornography, copyrighted or trademarked content when notified by a third party, or if our systems detect these types of content on Insight servers. Insight will contact the primary account administrator in the event content is taken down. Where can I find more information on Insight s Privacy Policy? Please contact insightcloud@uk.insight.com
Security Where is my organisation s data stored? Your data will be stored in PCI DSS and SAS 70 accredited datacentres. Insight maintains a primary UK datacentre which runs the service. Client and system data is backed up to a secondary DC. InsightCloud s computing clusters are architected with resiliency and redundancy in mind, eliminating any single point of failure and minimising the impact of common equipment failures and environmental risks. Is my organisation s data safe from your other customers when it is running on the same servers? Yes. Data is virtually protected as if it were on its own server. Unauthorised parties cannot access your data. Your competitors cannot access your data, and vice versa. In fact, all user accounts are protected via this virtual lock and key that ensures that one user cannot see another user s data. This is similar to how customer data is segmented in other shared infrastructures such as online banking applications. An administrator / end-user has deleted a number of e-mail messages, how can they be recovered? InsightCloud provides a backup & restore function for clients data. Client data is backed up on a daily basis and retained for 10 days. During that time restores can be facilitated by contacting Insight Support. Data is restored within the following Recovery Time Objectives: Data type RTO Requirements Notes File/Directory If request is received by Insight before 12:00 GMT file is restored same working day. If request is received by Insight after 12:00 GMT file is restored by 12:00 GMT next working day. User name, name of file or directory and the restore date. Typically for System or other file content i.e. Word documents.* SharePoint Next Working Day User name, item or directory name and the restore date. Exchange Next Working Day User name, item or mailbox name and the restore date. Restore of SharePoint data object or SharePoint site.* Provides recovery of messages, mailbox and message store.* Database Next Working Day User name, item or database name and the restore date. * All documents will be restored to the original location.
Security How do you protect your infrastructure against hackers and other threats? InsightCloud has multiple layers of security ensuring the best possible protection. These include SSL encrypted access, HA Cisco firewalls, intrusion detection monitoring, anti-spam and AV throughout the platform. How do you prevent against machine failures or natural disasters? InsightCloud computing clusters are designed with resiliency and redundancy in mind, eliminating single points of failure and minimising the impact of common equipment failures and environmental risks. All system and client data is backed up on a daily basis to a secondary remote DC. Access to our datacentres is restricted to authorised personnel. Is it safe for my organisation to access InsightCloud over the internet? Yes. All communication to the InsightCloud Hosted Exchange Service is encrypted using SSL. This is the same standard of security used by financial institutions for internet banking. How do you protect my organisation against spam, viruses and phishing attacks? We have built in virus checking and anti-spam, and we enforce checking of documents before allowing a user to download any message.
Technical What Internet browser do I need to Connect to InsightCloud Hosted Desktop? Microsoft Internet Explorer. What are the minimum system requirements for me to access the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop? Windows 2000, XP or higher, 10 MB of hard disk space, 15 MB RAM for each session, 32-bit or 64-bit CPU How much Internet bandwidth do I require for each concurrent user? The minimum recommended is 48Kbits/sec downstream for normal office users. Can InsightCloud Hosted Desktop be used offline? Access to the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop requires a live Internet connection. What applications are currently available with InsightCloud Hosted Desktop?»» Microsoft Exchange (Basic, Standard Plus, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus)»» Microsoft Office (Standard and Pro Plus)»» Microsoft Visio (Standard and Pro)»» Microsoft Project (Standard and Pro)»» Microsoft SharePoint Different users can have a different mix of applications and versions within the same organisation. I have a number of business applications over and above those listed above, can I still have access to these from the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop? Yes. We can achieve this in two ways;»» By importing the application into InsightCloud so that it is hosted by us as a part of the Hosted Desktop environment. This is a chargeable Insight service. For more details on this service please visit www. insightcloud.com.»» By using a facility called workspace extender. This allows us to map locally hosted applications into the Hosted Desktop. In this way you can access all of your applications from the hosted desktop even if they are run locally on your workstation. If you would like to discuss this in more detail please contact email insightcloud@uk.insight.com
Technical Can the hosted desktop integrate with my own Exchange server or an Exchange service hosted by a 3rd party service provider? As long as you have the appropriate Outlook license on the Hosted Desktop (supplied as standard with Office), then this can be configured to access an Exchange server hosted outside of the Insight Hosted Desktop; either your own Exchange server or provided by a 3rd party service provider. Can I transfer documents between InsightCloud Hosted Desktop and my workstation? Yes. When you log in to the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop all drives (local on your workstation and network shares) are mapped in to the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop. In this way you can move documents and data back and forth from InsightCloud Hosted Desktop using drag-and-drop or cut-and-paste. What about printing? When you log in to the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop a universal print driver is downloaded automatically. This enables you to use your existing printers (both local and network) to print documents from InsightCloud Hosted Desktop. Since you are scanning data for viruses, do I still need an anti-virus client on my workstation? Yes, everyone should be running a good updated anti-virus client. Any good commercial product with daily updates will work fine. How often do you patch/update InsightCloud Hosted Desktop? The servers may have to be taken off line for essential maintenance and software patches, you will be given prior notification and the work will be undertaken between 11pm and 4am to keep end user impact to a minimum. During this window of downtime, you may NOT be able to consistently connect to the InsightCloud Hosted Desktop. Depending on which servers are being worked upon, you may intermittently lose access for all or part of this downtime window. How long does it take to get set up on InsightCloud? InsightCloud administrator accounts can be created within a few hours of expressing an interest in the service. First you need to submit your details on and a credit check will then be performed on your organisation. Once credit check has been successful, you will then receive an e-mail containing your login details and the relevant URL enabling you to access the InsightCloud Portal and begin to create users and provision software and services. The provisioning process takes minutes.
Technical What is the InsightCloud management portal? Each client administrator will have access to the InsightCloud management portal. The main features of the portal are;»» Add / remove users»» Select from a range of InsightCloud services including the full range of Hosted Exchange Service options Can you manage this process for me? Clients can assign access to the console to Insight in order to manage the service on their behalf. For more information on Insight s service offering please contact insightcloud@uk.insight.com Can InsightCloud be used offline? If you wish to access your InsightCloud you must have a live internet connection. What additional services can you offer me? Insight has developed a dedicated Cloud Services Division consisting of a team of cloud computing specialists, incorporating key partners such as Google, Microsoft, EMC and Symantec. This division is constantly adding a portfolio of partners with the aim to enable clients from all sectors, from 5 seats through to enterprise level, to successfully adopt cloud technology. These services range from basic set up through to customisation and management of your cloud services to fit the needs of your organisation. For more details on the list of services offered in this team please click on the Cloud Services Tab at Does Insight offer first line telephone support? InsightCloud has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use as a result our customers rarely need to contact us, However for the occasions where you require technical assistance we have trained professionals on hand 24/7 in our Technical Assistance Centre. Where required a webex remote desktop session will be initiated to provide interactive support.
Billing How do I get billed? You will receive a monthly invoice for the services provisioned in the previous month. The minimum billing period is one month. What do I do next? Call 08444 723 828 or email insightcloud@uk.insight.com and speak to one of our Cloud Sales Specialists today or visit for:-»» More information on all of the services offered through InsightCloud»» To sign up to one of the services offered through InsightCloud»» Set up a FREE 30 day trial