Upper Hutt firm launches Office 365 portal

Upper Hutt-based Layer3 has designed a Kiwi-ised Microsoft Office 365 portal that it claims is the next step in cloud computing. According to the firm, the portal will enable users to ditch their small business server, as well as do away with the need for expensive Microsoft user licences.

CEO, Hayden Kirk, claims Layer3’s offering will create significant cost-savings and efficiency gains for smaller companies.

“Not only are we supplying the document storage facilities, but the unique bit is that we’re also supplying all the Windows programs and applications that you need to work on your documents and manage your systems.

“Users don’t need to have their own Windows programs or applications, which generates significant savings in licences.”

“We’re taking users back to the days when everything – documents, programs, systems files, the whole lot - was stored on a big mainframe in the basement and you did all your work at your desk through an access terminal.

According to Kirk, users can port in to the Layer3 cloud ‘mainframe’, use the embedded Windows 8 programs and systems files to work on their documents, and port out of the facility when finished.

He says the new service will make full Windows 8 functionality available to iPad and Android tablet users.

Layer 3 is based in Upper Hutt and has a staff of four, which it intends to increase when it expands its services to Auckland.

It was a finalist in the Innovation category of the 2013 Westpac Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.