In 2009 Simon Falconer, working for a multi-national software firm at the time, was on a lunch meeting with his accountant. Quickly getting off topic his accountant explained a problem: His IT supplier thinks that his server keeps getting overheated because of poor air conditioning and dust. He was advised that the best solution for a small firm of five staff was to build an air-conditioned rack in the office, but this would cost him $80,000.
Simon leaped into whiteboard-mode and got to work on explaining a much simpler and more efficient option. He drew a simple plan of a server located offsite in a data centre which the accounting firm could connect to via a ‘virtual private network’ (VPN). Sounded easy enough although back in 2009 finding someone to implement the idea was harder. For a small accounting firm it had to financially viable and cost effective. No one was providing that facility. Simon asked himself “It can be done but why is no one doing it?”
So he did it himself. With a little bit of research, and a lot of trial and error, Simon eventually moved the accountant’s server offsite into a safe and secure data centre.
Still working for the large US software firm Simon spent the next six months learning all that he could about VPNs and hosted servers. He bought an old server and created an environment to play and explore in and started hosting a couple of friends’ websites.
Then the multi-national software firm was bought and Simon had an opportunity to make a big decision. Instead of buying a house like everyone else his age, he built a cloud platform. Resolve was born.
