SBC News SBC interviews Manx Telecom Sales Director Fergal McKenna

SBC interviews Manx Telecom Sales Director Fergal McKenna

manxSBC looks to introduce its members and readers to leading players in the igaming sector. This week we feature an exclusive interview with Manx Telecom Sales Director Fergal McKenna. Manx Telecom is the Isle of Man-based hosting provider chosen by some of the world’s biggest igaming brands, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Paddy Power.

Fergal graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BSc in Management and has spent his career working in IT and telecommunications. He joined Manx Telecom in January 2012.

SBC: What advantages does Manx Telecom have as an igaming hosting provider?

FM: igaming companies value high availability of their services so that in turn they deliver consistently excellent service to their customer base. Manx Telecom delivers high availability services which are designed, installed and managed on-site 24 x 7 by a team of qualified engineers. The combination of our Manx Telecom Intelligent Cloud – a private cloud solution –  with our Dedicated Hosted Services offers our customers unrivalled access to world-class solutions delivered right here on the Isle of Man. Our unique position, owning and controlling the fibre network, mobile network and data centres gives us the edge when deploying IT solutions and advising our customers. Agreements with partners in UK, Europe and Asia mean that we can scale with our customers as they grow.

 

fergalSBC: Two of Manx Telecom’s newest clients – Bonobo plc and Vivant Ltd – are social gaming businesses. Tell us about them.

FM: Bonobo are the operators of lottorace.com which is a free to play game enjoyed by more than one million users on Facebook and with more than one billion virtual bets made so far. Vivant Ltd is a leading digital ideas company based in Sydney, Australia, and the operator of jaro.com – the ‘$1billion game for good’ – which aims to raise millions of dollars for charities via a simple pay to play game. Jaro, which stands for ‘join all and remain one’, has the potential to be the biggest annual fundraising event in the world. Players join to take part in a simple numerical guessing game for a $10 fee, and then decide how much of that fee will go towards charity, and how much towards the final prize total that will be won by one of the players. Although they are half way round the world from their hosting provider, Vivant Ltd’s CEO Anthony Farah says he regards our team as part of his own. For us that’s a fantastic endorsement for our hosting solutions.

 

 

 

SBC: Big Data is a buzz word in igaming. How will it affect the igaming sector?

FM: Big Data – which refers to data sets so large that that average computing tools can’t manage or process them – will put even greater demands on IT computing need. Small and mid-size businesses that used to host their hardware on-site, and large enterprises that previously ran their own data centers, are having to search out new options to adapt to the emerging Big Data era. Big Data requires massive amounts of computing power. Typically the average company isn’t equipped to handle such specialized needs. Data centers are now being constructed tailored specifically to Big Data needs, and with the processing power for high-performance computing. Companies will need to be prepared, if not now then in the next two to five years.

 

SBC: And what about the impact of 4G?

FM: For sportsbooks 4G means the ability to use the latest web technology to push odds, price and race data directly to the user, reducing or eliminating the need for polling. Bets can be priced in real time, an essential component of in-play betting with odds delivered milliseconds after publication from the trading platform. 4G will significantly reduce server load for high traffic sites and during peak demand times. Our trials and technical preparations for 4G superfast mobile broadband in the Isle of Man are already well advanced and, depending upon the allocation of radio frequencies, we plan to launch a 4G network later this year. We have a worldwide reputation in mobile technology and in 2005 became the world’s first company to offer a HSDPA (3.5G) service. Manx Telecom’s role as a network pioneer, and the in-house expertise involved in decades of investment and innovation in mobile technology, gives us a distinct advantage over other hosting providers. As the potential of 4G continues to be developed, we believe the real winners in the mobile arena will not only be those that merely look at their own company’s technical mobile internet infrastructure and hosting or data centre requirements, but also those igaming operators that partner with mobile telecoms providers which operate the backbone network. Partnering with such a telecoms provider, and particularly one which has years of experience in telecoms in the international market and igaming sector, means that businesses can leverage from that know-how.

For more information about Manx Telecom’s hosting solutions click here: http://www.manxtelecom.com/business/hosting.aspx

To view Fergal McKenna’s Linkedin profile click here: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/fergalmckenna

 

About Manx Telecom

  • Manx Telecom is the largest telecommunications and Internet provider on the Isle of Man, offering a full range of fixed line, mobile, and data services to consumers and businesses.
  • Manx Telecom provides 100% broadband coverage to all fixed lines on the Island, which currently experiences higher average broadband speeds than the UK.
  • Manx Telecom provides its customers with the best 3G mobile coverage and fastest mobile broadband speeds on the Island.
  • Manx Telecom’s Ultima broadband service offers download speeds of up to 40Mbit/s and upload speeds of up to 2Mbit/s and is available to around 65 per cent of homes on the Island.
  • Manx Telecom operates the Island’s only purpose built Data Centre. The Data Centre provides business continuity, simple co-location, managed hosting services, or full e-commerce platforms to on and off-Island companies.
  • Over the last ten years we have invested some £120million in the Island’s telecommunications infrastructure.  A key element of our investment has been a spend of some £25 million designing and building a Next Generation Network (NGN). Based on Internet Protocol (IP), the NGN will enable Manx Telecom to offer its personal and business customers on the Isle of Man the ability to access and manipulate voice, data, television, and video, on one seamless converged network – the first community in the world to be able to do so.
  • Manx Telecom operates the Connect Mann network – one of the largest integrated eGovernment networks in the world – providing a comprehensive range of mobile, fixed line and Internet services to more than 230 Government sites throughout the Island.
  • Manx Telecom is one of the largest employers on the Island, employing over 300 people.
  • In partnership with the Isle of Man Government, Manx Telecom plays a pivotal role in making the Island a global centre of excellence for eBusiness in all its forms.

 

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manx

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