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GEN, Global Enterprise Networks, is a UK partnership that has supplied IT to businesses since 1989. We started out running EDI over X.25 and X.400, became an internet service provider in 1992, and today design, host and support the systems businesses run on, from connectivity and cloud to software and AI, in our own UK data centres.
Every provider that started alongside us has since fallen away or moved to consumer services, which makes GEN the longest established business IT service provider in the UK. The senior partners who founded it still run it, every day.
GEN has always been a partnership, with three senior and two junior partners. The senior partners founded the business in 1989 and are still involved in it every day: not only in strategy, but in winning new business, looking after client relationships and running the infrastructure.
A partnership lasting thirty-seven years takes trust between the partners and a shared view of how the work should be done. It also brings practical advantages to our clients: decisions made quickly, without layers of management; simple governance, without the public disclosure that applies to limited companies, which keeps sensitive information private; and personal accountability, because the people responsible for your service own the business that provides it.
Connectivity, cloud, hosting, storage, email, telephony and managed VPN from our own data centres, with IT outsourcing, compliance, consultancy and training. IT outsourcing is a good place to start.
Bespoke applications, websites and customer portals, system integration, data migration and telephony development, and GENAdmin, our own business suite. See bespoke software.
Private AI on our own hardware: GAIN, our own platform, with document analysis, transcription, chatbots, workflow automation and safely deployed AI agents.
Hands-on support for the systems businesses actually run, from Proxmox, Synology, HPE and Microsoft to telephony and legacy platforms, through the HelpDesk at any hour. See how we support you.
Linux across every major distribution, open office suites, Nextcloud and Matrix, chosen, hosted and supported for business use. See Linux support.
From the partnership in 1989 to today. In the early years we were very much at the leading edge, and where an entry below is described as a first, it was a first for the industry. The stories behind many of them are on our history page.
The partnership formed, launching Global Enterprise Network, our EDI service, over X.25 and then X.400
Firmware for a series of communications satellites, triple redundant on OS-9000, and still in orbit
Our first machine learning network, predicting when telephone calls would end
GEN Central Storage, the first cloud storage service, used by Radio Rentals' national field force to collect each day's work by dial-in, on NetWare 3, then NetWare 4 and later Linux
GENMail, the world's first free email service, combining SMTP, FidoMail and X.400 in one platform, and from its second release the first email service with PGP encryption built in. It served small businesses until 2015, and every email we send is still PGP signed
The first free dial-up ISP, Diamond, with 128 channels at V.32
A single sign-on directory across internet, email and storage, unique in the industry and years before Active Directory
The first 128k digital internet service, over bonded ISDN2 with BT, Diamond and Motorola, followed by Office Gateway, the first to bring channels up on demand, to 512k
Hayes Century remote access on Windows NT 4.0, growing to 80 racks and points of presence in 10 countries, the largest Hayes Century operation in the world
Intel Insight, developed with Intel as an Intel Advanced Networking Partner for its Express switches, a forerunner of RMON
GEN email and storage built into Nokia's 9000 series handsets, so field staff could share files and send orders from the road
The first mobile data interface, on Motorola 68k over BT Cellnet
GENActive, our online payment platform, taking cards, bank transfers and even cheques, in service until 2011
The first VoIP provider, on Asterisk, offering IAX2 and then SIP to replace branch exchanges
The first cloud virtualisation provider, on VMware GSX and then ESX, before AWS and Azure
The first helpdesk as a service, GENSupport, fixed price or pay as you go
The first isolated, encrypted virtual WAN over IP, for GEN interconnects
The first public encrypted voice service, encrypted IAX2 and RTP on Asterisk
The first mobile dial-up and fax, over BT, O2 and Cellnet
The first deployable IP KVM for remote support, plug and play
Fixed-price, multi-year support contracts abolished
GENZone, our enterprise email platform, running alongside GENMail
The first EnergyStar compliant data centre
GENX, the second generation of our enterprise messaging, with email, calendar, contacts and Jabber instant messaging as standard on every mailbox, after a long public beta
The first peer-to-peer, double-encrypted WAN, replacing leased lines
The Serenity big data platform: a cluster of eight HPE DL580 servers, with 32 Xeon processors and 640 cores dedicated to data, on Fibre Channel storage with cached local storage for large temporary tables
Data centres fully green powered, with our own solar and the latest HPE hardware
GAIN, our own AI platform: specialised models that check each other's work and agree before answering
A 48 GPU AI processing cluster, for our own and our clients' workloads
Oversight, real-time infrastructure monitoring with detailed Proxmox cluster intelligence
We are not a provider that signs you up online and leaves you to work it out. If that is what you want, others do it better. We are with you at every step: we will help you set it up or set it up for you, work through it with you or work under your instruction, and maintain it for you or show you how to maintain it yourself.
Since 2010 we have not asked anyone to sign a fixed-price, multi-year support contract. You buy hours at our published rates, choose the service level you need, carry unused time forward, and leave whenever you wish. Our support comes from GEN's own people, not a subcontracted call centre, and in thirty-seven years we have worked in legal, insurance, financial services, energy, contact centres, transport, engineering, aerospace, manufacturing and healthcare, adapting our services to each.
Many providers display client logos and trade on their relationships. We do not. Your business is yours, not ours to promote, so you will not find client names, hints, case studies or testimonials in anything we publish. That commitment is written into our framework contracts.
It extends to social media, where strict policies prevent posts, connections or interactions that could reveal a client relationship, because even small signs can imply an association. Our staff may not have any social media presence that names or mentions the company, its staff or its clients, and that is contractual, alongside a strict NDA.
It is also a security measure. Providers that publicise their clients have become targets for criminals looking for a way into those clients, through breaches, coercion, extortion, blackmail and espionage. That is why organisations in finance, law, education, healthcare and the public sector trust us, and the commitment does not end with the contract: it continues, supported by strictly limited data retention.
Security at GEN rests on strict access controls and small circles of trust. Our technical specialists stay anonymous to clients and work through the HelpDesk, while every action they take is accountable internally. That anonymity protects both them and you from targeted attacks and social engineering, and wherever we can, we take people out of the access chain altogether, removing the route most attacks on support providers depend on. The detail is on our security page.
Our people stay with us for a long time, so vacancies in the core team are rare. We recruit for field service more often, and if you would like to be considered, contact us.
Our data centres have run on green power since 2020, including our own solar generation, and they run at one of the lowest PUEs in the industry. On some days we already operate carbon neutral, and as members of the European Data Centre Association, and committed through Climate Hub, we have pledged to be carbon neutral all of the time by 2030.
We are a certified service provider of the Green Datacentre Association UK, members of the Green Web Foundation, and supporters of the Green Power Association. Equipment we retire goes to responsible recyclers who return it to the supply chain, which keeps it out of the e-waste stream. How we generate, cool and back up our power is on our ecology page.
We support these organisations with financial contributions or subsidised services. We do not endorse everything they do, but we believe they contribute to society, and we review our support from time to time.
No. GEN, Global Enterprise Networks, is a general partnership under the law of England and Wales, run by its partners.
The partnership was formed in 1989, when GEN ran EDI over X.25 and X.400, and we became an internet service provider in 1992.
Yes. GEN is based in the UK and also works for clients across Europe, the Americas and Canada, the Middle East, Africa, India and the Far East, particularly in consultancy, managed services, and international routing and circuits. That reach goes back to our dial-up network, which had points of presence in ten countries: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the USA, Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan.
The partners: three senior and two junior. The senior partners are the people who founded the business in 1989, and they are still involved every day, in new business, client relationships and running the infrastructure, as well as in strategy.
Because your business is yours, not ours to promote, and because publishing it would make you a target. Providers who display their clients have become a route into those clients for criminals, through breaches, coercion and extortion. Confidentiality is written into our framework contracts, and it continues after a contract ends.
You work with them through the HelpDesk, and your account manager is your named contact. Our specialists stay anonymous by design, which protects them and you from targeted attacks and social engineering, while every action they take is recorded and accountable internally.
In the United Kingdom. We do not publish their locations, and no third party has access to them.
The HelpDesk at support.gen.uk is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, for raising and following tickets. How quickly we respond depends on the service level agreement you choose, up to 24/7 cover with a 30 minute response.
Occasionally. Our core team stays with us for a long time, so vacancies there are rare, but we recruit for field service more often. If you would like to be considered, contact us.