Leading ITC suppliers Westcoastcloud and Forensic Software partner to offer complete e-safety solution

The all-in-one cloud service ‘Netintelligence powered by Forensic Software,' offers schools and local authorities a in point of fact integrated e-safety solution that includes real time monitoring, web filtering, blocking and policy enforcement which is backed by the UK's only Kitemark for Child Online Safety PAS 74. Until now, no single solution has been available to be used across multiple internet-connected devices.

The solution will provide educational establishments with a complete e-safety tool kit to combat the threats of cyber bullying, harassment and grooming as then as sites containing inappropriate content just as the promotion of suicide, self-harm and pornography. This new partnership between Westcoastcloud and Forensic Software has been welcomed by the child psychologist, author, newspaper columnist and TV presenter, Professor Tanya Byron who led a government review into the risks to children of accessing inappropriate material on the internet.

Professor Byron said: "I welcome this approach by e-safety innovation companies combining their resources to provide a far more reaching safety net for children and those who have a duty of care to them. It's reassuring that the recommendations made in my previous review and the more recent recommendations of the Bailey Review about protecting children online are being taken on board by companies to help deliver the safest possible environments for children and families.

The new partnership between the two companies is being launched with the combination of their leading e-safety solutions: Westcoastcloud's ‘Netintelligence Enterprise Manager' and Forensic Software's ‘Policy Central Enterprise'. Netintelligence Enterprise Manager provides filtering and blocking of harmful and inappropriate material via one central control panel across multiple internet-connected devices just as desktop PCs, laptops and more recently iPads. Policy Central Enterprise provides the additional capability of being able to monitor and report when children do or access something inappropriate whilst using applications just as Microsoft Office and email, as so then as online activity. The software takes a screen capture of what they have attempted to do or have been inadvertently exposed to, providing an important audit trail which can be acted upon.

Bill Strain, director of Westcoastcloud, said: "This is a great step forward for the provision of online safety tools to the education market. Delivering internet protection in an educational environment can be a real challenge. Increasingly the campus is being extended beyond traditional boundaries. Policies need to provide appropriate protection for diverse groups ranging from very young children to teachers, staff and even parents. Each of these groups can have very different needs and priorities. The combination of our two sets of controls, will give schools greater peace of mind when trying to protect and regulate the behaviour of pupils online."

"The ability to monitor as so then as filter can allow schools to open up access to if not blocked sites, just as Facebook and YouTube which, when used appropriately, are wonderful learning resources for pupils. All of this new innovation is in point of fact ground breaking and very exciting, nevertheless without the appropriate controls in place children are being put at considerable risk."

As the solution is not tied to a specific network or gateway it can provide protection to all devices regardless of their physical location even if they are on the move. The creation and management of policies is achieved using a simple web interface. These policies can be tailored to specific groups or individuals with updates without warning available to all machines and users that are being protected via the cloud.

Until now Netintelligence Enterprise Manager and Policy Central Enterprise have been used separately and very successfully by thousands of schools and scores of local authorities to protect children in their care. Netintelligence was the e-safety software of choice for the government's Home Access project and currently helps protect hundreds of thousands of children online both at school and at home. Policy Central Enterprise is used by local authorities including Birmingham, Warwickshire, Northumberland and Telford and Wrekin to help protect over 2 million children online. Westcoastcloud director Bill Strain concluded: "Bringing these two products at the same time will as well give schools a more cost effective option when they are looking at what's available in the child internet safety market." Westcoastcloud is a subsidiary of iomart Group plc, which was named Scottish Digital IT Company of the Year 2011 and ranked as one of the top 25 cloud services providers in the world.

WestCoastCloud delivers business-critical cloud solutions for service providers of all sizes - from small niche specialists to large multinationals. Its range of cloud service solutions suits any market and any provider from consumer to ISP. Westcoastcloud is part of AIM listed iomart Group plc, one of the UK's leading providers of managed hosting and cloud computing services. From a single server through to complex private cloud networks, iomart specialises in the delivery and management of mission-critical hosting services, enabling clients to reduce the costs, complexity and risks associated with maintaining their own web and online applications.