Case study

Covering all the angles of disaster recovery planning

Like all the Ferranti systems and solutions hosted in the Colt data centre, the NOC has redundancy built in to guard against, for example, a problem with an individual server. When the company decided to extend that disaster recovery capability with a resilient, dual–data centre approach, it initially considered doing so by installing equipment in Colt's Amsterdam data centre. "But we really wanted to avoid capital outlay on hardware," explains Mr. Baert. So Ferranti opted instead for Colt's Enterprise Cloud, a VMware vCloud® Data Center Service.

"It's an elegantly designed solution, based on a reliable virtualisation platform and top-quality hardware, that we pay for on a usage basis," explains Mr. Baert. "We have complete control over our computing resources, but we don't have to worry about things like server maintenance, patching or failover exercises – Colt takes care of all of that."

Cloud computing that inspires trust

The Enterprise Cloud service is hosted in a second Colt data centre , giving Ferranti the dual–data centre resilience it wanted. The two locations are

Ferranti gains peace of mind without capital investment

Customer name Ferranti Computer Systems

BusinessSystems integrator

SectorTechnology

ChallengeTo add extra resilience to critical operational systems and customer solutions without capital investment.

SolutionColt Managed Services

Products and services Enterprise Cloud, LANLink

Belgium-based systems integrator Ferranti Computer Systems provides managed IT solutions that its customers rely on every day. These range from networks, infrastructure and desktop productivity services, to smart metering and customer information systems for energy and utility companies.

"Our customers use our solutions 24/7 for critical business activities – they can't a�ord a moment's downtime," explains Frederik Baert, Director of Professional Services for Ferranti's ICT division. "That means our network operations centre must be permanently available, so that we can monitor and manage the health of our customers' solutions round the clock."

Ferranti houses its network operations centre (NOC) in Colt's data centre in Brussels, along with other systems and solutions, including its infrastructure-as-a-service platform that's used by around 20 of its customers. Colt has been providing Ferranti with data centre colocation and connectivity and a range of managed services in a partnership that dates back several years.

Enterprise Cloud makes a dual–data centre approach to disaster recovery quick to set up and easy to scale.

© 2012 Colt Technology Services Group Limited. The Colt name and logos are trade marks. All rights reserved.

Like us, our customer wanted its data to stay in the European Union for compliance purposes. Our customers are generally happy with the concept of cloud computing – but they like to know where the cloud is and that it's physically nearby. By working with Colt, we can give them this reassurance. //

Frederik BaertDirector of Professional Services, ICTFerranti Computer Systems

//

connected by Colt LANLink that provides a high-speed Ethernet link. "Because the two data centres are on the same backbone, there are no network integration issues," says Mr. Baert.

Ferranti's NOC systems and data are continuously replicated between the two data centres, with either one instantly able to take over from the other should a problem occur. This ensures the NOC is permanently available to monitor Ferranti's customer solutions. Ferranti is using the same approach to strengthen disaster recovery capability for an e-commerce website belonging to one of its customers, making high availability a key requirement.

"As more customers ask us for the same disaster recovery capability, it will be quick and easy to scale the Enterprise Cloud accordingly – and the LANLink connection can be logically split to keep everyone's data separate," says Mr. Baert.

Like Ferranti, the customer wanted its data to stay in the European Union for compliance purposes. "Our customers are generally happy with the concept of cloud computing," explains Mr. Baert.

"But they like to know where the cloud is and that it's physically nearby. By working with Colt, we can give them this reassurance."

Ferranti and Colt: a partnership on many levels

Although many of Ferranti's customers are in Benelux, others are elsewhere in Europe or further afield, including CIS, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East.

"That's why we chose to partner with Colt in the first place: we knew they had the international reach to support our customer solutions around the world," confirms Mr. Baert.

He continues: "Our customers like the fact that we work with Colt – it gives them confidence that the data centres are secure and that the links between them are fast and reliable. What's more, our partnership with Colt adds an international aspect to our value proposition, helping us gain market share in countries like the UK where the Colt name is better known than our own."

Contact details Tel: +32 (0) 2 790 1616E-Mail: be.info@colt.netWeb: www.colt.net/be

Index ref no.: 2012/07/BE/EN