Posts Tagged ‘datacentre’

InterTradeIreland realises cloud IT efficiencies and productivity gains

Pictured are (l-r) Laurence Lord, Corporate Services Director, InterTradeIreland & Patrick McAliskey, Managing Director, Novosco

Belfast & Dublin, 14th Oct 09 - Novosco, leading provider of virtual and cloud IT infrastructure and services, announced today that it had been awarded a ‘cloud & managed services’ contract by InterTradeIreland (ITI), Ireland’s cross border trade and development body.

The contract was awarded to Novosco following a competitive tendering process and incorporates a hosted disaster recovery solution and resilient internet connection to the datacentre using Novosco’s CloudStream Network service.  The contract also included a managed service agreement where Novosco will pro-actively support the local IT infrastructure  at InterTradeIreland HQ’s in Newry.

InterTradeIreland has the responsibility to boost trade and business growth throughout the island of Northern Ireland and Ireland.  Through North/South economic co-operation and by encouraging better use of collective resources, InterTradeIreland creates an environment to increase the competitiveness of individual companies and the two economies in the global marketplace. 

“InterTradeIreland are looking forward to working with Novosco in exploring ways to realise efficiencies and savings within IT” said Laurence Lord, Corporate Services Director, InterTradeIreland.  “Using Novosco’s CloudStream IT services we are getting more for less and realising savings and productivity increases in the short term through utilising emerging cloud technologies.”

The Novosco CloudStream range of IT services leads the industry with Cloud networks and hosted Cloud servers / applications.  As a disaster recovery solution, InterTradeIreland will effectively rent virtual, cloud servers that reside in one of Novosco’s Tier 3  hosting facilities.  These hosted server files will hold replicated data from InterTradeIreland HQ’s so that the IT environment can be quickly recreated in the event of a disaster.

“The Novosco Cloud based servers for disaster recovery will provide InterTradeIreland with computing resources on demand and will leave the worry of IT hardware/infrastructure failures to Novosco” said John Lennon, Business Development Director, Novosco.  “Instead of ITI buying secondary traditional hardware for disaster recovery, they will simply avail of a hosted server platform using virtualisation technology, which will offer great IT efficiences and savings”. 

To ensure resilient internet connectivity to the datacentre, ITI also opted to use Novosco’s CloudStream Network service.  Unlike traditional network providers, Novosco CloudStream Net service is typically half the price of leased lines and utilises multiple telco/transit providers.  This has the unique advantage of offering ITI multiple layers of network resilience and maximum continuity of network service, without having to purchase costly leased lines.

In addition to cloud services for disaster recovery, Novosco will also assist ITI in the support of their local day-to-day, traditional IT infrastructure in Newry.  The Novosco ‘Managed Service Agreement’ will proactively monitor and support InterTradeIreland’s local hardware / software infrastructure.  Beyond this Novosco will also continually ensure the optimisation of InterTradeIreland’s IT network to keep IT systems lean and highly available.

About Novosco

Novosco is one of Ireland’s leading providers of virtual & cloud based IT infrastructure and network services.  With established hardware/software vendor partnerships with Citrix, EMC, Microsoft and VMware, Novosco offers the highest level of accreditation in Ireland for Virtualisation solutions.  The Novosco CloudStream™ range of solutions is leading the industry with Cloud networks and hosted Cloud servers / applications.    

Novosco was recently recognised at the annual ICT Excellence awards as ‘Best System Integration Company, for 2009.
For more information visit www.novosco.com

Posted in: Press Releases Tags: Cloud Computing, datacentre

Novosco will be holding a ‘Cloud Computing Breakfast Briefing’ on Thursday 5th Nov 09, Dublin.  (Novosco Dublin HQ office in Blanchardstown Corporate Park)

Agenda

- Breakfast
- What is Cloud Computing?
- Overview of Novosco CloudStream services
 - CloudStream Net (Private & Resilient Cloud Network Service)
 - CloudStream Servers (Virtual, Secure Severs On-demand)
- CloudStream Apps (Hosted applications, Always Available & Secure)
- Q&A

Who should attend:

Existing customers looking to extend into the cloud, Consultants & Solution advisors looking to add cloud computing to their portfolio.   

To register please complete the form below

Posted in: Events Tags: Cloud Computing, datacentre, virtualisation

What is Cloud Computing?

By Andrew Gregson, Novosco Creative Technology Director

Cloud Computing has long been a buzz word in the IT industry. Everyone is jumping on the cloud trend, but what does it really mean for businesses? What options are available today and what are the customer benefits of adopting a cloud IT infrastructure?

It is not surprising that companies find the cloud computing model confusing or fuzzy. Among the jargon however lies a fundamental change in the way IT operates. It’s about looking at ongoing IT costs per user and having a trusted ‘cloud provider’ to worry which technologies/hardware to host your infrastructure on. With cloud providers hosting the infrastructure, companies simply pay a fee per user/per month, with no capital expenditure (CAPEX) to spend. Only when businesses (large & small) start to actively embrace this model, will they realise both the immediate and future benefits of cloud computing.

Novosco’s definition of cloud computing…

Cloud computing provides computing resources on demand and leaves the worry of IT hardware/infrastructure to cloud providers.  Instead of companies buying traditional hardware, they simply avail of a hosted hardware/software platform and rent ‘IT as a service’; taking the form of hosted servers, hosted software applications and hosted online backup.

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Posted in: Technology Tags: Cloud Computing, datacentre

Novosco will be holding a ‘Cloud Computing Breakfast Briefing’ in the Park Inn, Belfast on Thursday 22nd Oct 09.

Agenda 

- Breakfast 
- What is Cloud Computing?
- Overview of Novosco CloudStream services
- CloudStream Net Service (Private & Resilient Cloud Network Service)
- Q&A

Who should attend: 

 Consultants, IT Professionals & management involved in networks / IT infrastructure

Spaces are limited.  To register please complete the form below:

Posted in: Events Tags: Cloud Computing, datacentre, Novosco

Cloud computing is reforming the IT marketplace offering a much cheaper way for businesses to acquire and use IT.

iQuest & The Sunday Business Post in association with the Irish Software Association and The National Digital Research Centre will host the ‘Cloud Computing Summit’, 23rd September, with exhibitors including Novosco, VMware, Salesforce.com and eircom. 

The summit focuses on how traditional enterprises can adopt Cloud Computing and features thought leaders, industry experts and end-user experiences of cloud technologies.

Novosco will share its experiences on cloud computing and will exhibit to discuss its CloudStream™ range of cloud IT services, including:

° Cloud Networks
° Cloud Servers
° Cloud Applications

The main cloud summit conference is on the 23rd September, with technical sessions on the 22nd September.

For more information on the summit please email edwina.nugent@novosco.com

Or Register online at http://www.cloudsummit.ie/index.php?show=booking

Posted in: Events Tags: Cloud Computing, datacentre, virtualisation

Zero Capital costs: Three year contract

John Timmins, Financial Controller, Burlington Hotel & Eddie O'Rourke, Novosco Sales Director

 Dublin, 23rd July 09 - Novosco, Ireland’s leading provider of virtual IT infrastructure and services, today announced that the Burlington Hotel, one of Dublin’s best known landmark hotels, has chosen Novosco to host their back office and email applications for the next three years.

“We have been extremely impressed with how quickly Novosco were able to get our applications up and running”, said John Clifton, General Manager of the Burlington.  “Since the system went live, we have had no complaints about the speed, security or usability.”

“This approach made a lot more sense than installing applications locally and having to worry about keeping them safe from harm”, continued John Timmins, Financial Controller at The Burlington. “As we don’t have any full time IT staff, a service like this was very attractive to us.”

Eddie O’Rourke, Novosco Sales Director was quick to outline the value of the service, “Novosco’s CloudStream application service allows customers to get up and running quickly without the need for any capital investment.  This is the case for new or existing applications.  In the case of the Burlington, this is attractive from a cash flow point of view but more importantly, they now have a consistent and predictable cost for running these applications for at least the next three years. This brings some comfort at a time when businesses everywhere are looking to reduce and manage their costs”.

O’Rourke goes on to explain how this approach is possible: “Novosco have already made the upfront investment in our fault tolerant cloud infrastructure so that our customers don’t have to.  This gives them valuable piece of mind.  Our customers’ virtualised applications and data reside inside a state of the art data centre, making both the physical systems and the surrounding environment completely resilient.  It also means that our customers have one less headache when it comes to disaster recovery, as they can securely access their applications from any location over the Internet”.

Novosco are the Irish leaders in virtualisation and application delivery and were recently recognised at the annual ICT Excellence awards as Best System Integration Company for 2009.

About Novosco

Novosco is one of Ireland’s leading providers of virtual IT infrastructure and services and is committed to assisting customers in the evaluation and optimisation of their IT systems.  With established hardware/software vendor partnerships with Citrix, EMC, Microsoft and VMware, Novosco offers the highest level of accreditation in Ireland for Virtualisation solutions. Novosco has pioneered the use of end to end virtualisation with server, desktop and application technologies to redefine the dynamic data centre.  This approach enables Novosco to develop and deliver cost-effective IT solutions that enhance client operations and enable them to get the most out of their IT infrastructure.

Novosco have provided solutions to a range of clients including government establishments and private sector organisations of all sizes including Lagan Holdings, John Sisk & Sons and many more.  Novosco was recently recognised at the annual ICT Excellence awards as ‘Best System Integration Company, for 2009.  For more information visit www.novosco.com

About The Burlington Hotel

A place that has inspired a thousand stories, the Burlington Hotel has held a special place in the heart of Dublin since 1972. If the walls could speak they would tell tales of gala events and sumptuous social gatherings, of great sporting legends whose passion ignited the hearts of many.

Posted in: Press Releases Tags: Cloud Computing, datacentre, virtualisation

VMware, EMC, Cisco & Novosco are driving the virtualised datacentre of the future and making cloud computing a reality.

Join us for a free, exclusive briefing on how VMware and other key technology partners will deliver next generation virtualisation for the datacentre of the future and as the foundation for cloud computing.  VMware will feature the recent announcement of VSphere 4 and how it delivers an IT infrastructure with maximum efficiency, uncompromised control, and the flexibility of choice.

AGENDA in brief:

* Driving further reductions in capital and operating infrastructure costs
* Control, automation, and optimisation of your data centre infrastructure
* Securing a virtualised environment
* Virtualisation of storage and information management infrastructure
* Virtualisation of the network infrastructure

Who should attend?

IT professionals and management involved in: Virtualisation, IT Infrastructure, Datacentre, Security, Networks

Posted in: Events Tags: datacentre, EMC, virtualisation, VMware

Novosco virtualise servers using VMware technology to cut costs and implement disaster recovery plan

Ken Kennedy, Sisk Group IT Manager & Eddie O'Rourke, Novosco Sales Director

Dublin, 16th April 09 - Novosco, Ireland’s leading provider of virtual IT infrastructure and services is to implement the second phase of John Sisk & Sons IT virtualisation project.  Part of a strategic phased virtualisation project to centralise John Sisk & Sons IT network, Novosco will implement VMware technology on all servers, with the benefits of consolidating hardware and reducing core infrastructure costs. 

The largest general contracting company in Ireland with turnover in excess of €1.2 billion, John Sisk & Sons’ IT infrastructure serves approximately 700 IT users and a vast number of remote construction sites.  Landmark construction projects include Croke Park and more recently, Lansdowne Road. 

“Over the past year we have been working with our preferred supplier Novosco, to centralise our IT infrastructure using VMware virtualisation technology, as well as to risk manage the move of our IT infrastructure to a 3rd party data centre,” said Ken Kennedy, IT Manager, Sisk Group. “Our VMware environment has grown significantly and has become the lynchpin of our IT systems. Within the last 4-6 months we have removed 15 of our physical servers and virtualised them onto two hosts. We feel virtualisation is the way forward for us to further centralise IT and to reduce both ongoing support and capital costs.”

With virtualisation phase two, Sisk will consolidate all servers into the external data centre. This decentralised platform is particularly beneficial given the low level of bandwidth in Ireland and has provided Sisk with a solid disaster recovery plan. From a return on investment perspective, the second phase of virtualisation will create ‘significant’ cost savings, which is particularly important given the current economic climate.

“With 60 to 70 construction sites throughout the country, reducing servers has greatly improved the Sisk Group’s ability to setup new remote sites. Virtualisation creates the ability to rapidly provision servers and applications to meet the needs of the business,” said Eddie O’Rourke, Sales Director, Novosco.  “We brought virtualisation to the table and advised Sisk Group on a staged virtualisation approach.”

“We have a very close relationship with Novosco. We chose Novosco as a preferred partner not just because of their virtualisation experience, but because they added value with their wide range of knowledge of other technologies such as thin client and core infrastructure,” said Daragh Doohan, Network Infrastructure Manager, Sisk Group.

With virtualisation phase two, Sisk & Sons will endeavour to make IT a business enabler, as opposed to being just a cost centre within business operations.  Virtualisation will free up more resources and will add value to projects, rather than be a cost contributor.  Over the next couple of years, Sisk & Sons will also focus on the whole area of desktop virtualisation in order to provide an even better experience for all IT users.  

About Novosco
Novosco is one of Ireland’s leading providers of virtual IT infrastructure and services and is committed to assisting customers in the evaluation and optimisation of their IT systems.  With established hardware/software vendor partnerships with Citrix, EMC, Microsoft and VMware, Novosco offers the highest level of accreditation in Ireland for Virtualisation solutions.  This approach enables Novosco to develop and deliver cost-effective IT solutions that enhance client operations and enable them to get the most out of their IT infrastructure.

Novosco have provided solutions to a range of clients including government establishments and private sector organisations of all sizes including Lagan Holdings, John Sisk & Sons and many more.

Posted in: Press Releases Tags: business continuity, datacentre, virtualisation, VMware

The Malton Hotel, formerly the Great Southern Hotel Killarney, has chosen Novosco to host and manage its IT infrastructure for the next three years. The project was delivered within one month and provides The Malton with a level of resilience and flexibility normally only available to large corporations.

The solution leverages several types of virtualisation to allow all of The Malton’s applications to run securely and in a well performing manner from a dedicated data centre.

The most unique aspect of the deal however, is that everything was paid for as a service. “It may surprise some people that the capital expenditure figure for this project was zero.  Not only is this attractive from a cashflow point of view, but this approach brings additional benefits, such as the fact that The Malton now has a consistent and predictable cost for IT for at least the next three years. This brings the business some comfort in uncertain times,” explains Eddie O’Rourke, Sales Director with Novosco.

“We liked this approach because it meant that everything was paid for out of operating expenditure. The idea of investing in lots of hardware which depreciates very quickly was not appealing to us. Most importantly, we have been extremely happy with the performance and support of the system since it went live,” adds Conor Hennigan, General Manager of The Malton.

The project is different from traditional hosted solutions due to the fact that the customer did not bring any hardware to the data centre. O’Rourke explains how this was possible: “By making the upfront investment in what is effectively ‘virtual IT real estate’, a bit like an ‘application hotel’, we can charge out virtual ‘plots’ as one single fee without the customer having to make that capital investment.  This virtual plot happens to live inside a dedicated data centre, making both the physical systems and the surrounding environment completely resilient.

“The additional value that Novosco brings to this scenario is our unique understanding of application delivery. In other words, we are the Irish leaders in delivering diverse applications to diverse locations. The days of private companies having to worry about such things are hopefully coming to an end,” O’Rouke concludes.

The Malton Hotel is a stunning Victorian hotel and much-loved Irish landmark. Known for its distinctive architecture, effortless service and genuine hospitality, The Malton has been a favourite hotel in Killarney for over a century and a half. Tucked away on six acres of landscaped gardens, fountains and pathways for rambling, The Malton is unique in combining wide-open space with the convenience of Killarney town.

Posted in: News Tags: datacentre, hosting, virtualisation

Virtualisation to curb carbon emissions from Irish IT Industry

Dublin, Ireland, dateline… Energy consumption is currently the number one cost for datacentres and virtualisation could be the key to make Irish IT Industry more energy efficient, according to David McAuley, Energy Management expert with Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI).

McAuley spoke at Novosco’s Virtualisation Briefing hosted by The Conrad Hotel, in Dublin, on Thursday 13th February. SEI is a non-profit organization created to help reduce energy and carbon footprint in Ireland.

“Our main goal is to promote sustainable energy through three key elements. The first one and most important is energy efficiency; secondly, integration and innovation, and also renewables and sustainable energy,” he explained.

The event addressed the key benefits of Virtualisation 2.0 and focused on how virtualisation can help companies achieve greater levels of availability and resilience, reduce the cost of managing and maintaining desktop infrastructure by 40% and roll out new applications, but also reduce the power consumption and carbon footprint of IT.

“From an energy point of view, virtualisation has huge potential to have an impact in the industry, since IT is growing so fast. It is a fantastic solution to prevent the increase of energy consumption because it reduces the core energy requirements. By doing this, the impacts of support system inefficiencies are kept to a minimum. This is a key principle in energy management,” he adds.

SEI offers services for businesses interested in receiving advice about energy efficiency. “It is all about optimizing the amount of energy you need. Many datacentres at the moment don’t need as much energy as they use. From this point of view, virtualization is a fantastic technology. If we can have the same system generating less heat, needing less cooling and doing the same job or even doubling the amount or work, this is a great step towards energy efficiency and it has great potential to have huge impact in the carbon emissions coming from the IT industry.”

Exact statistics on energy usage in the IT industry in Ireland are not available yet, according to McAuley. “We have only started looking at the IT industry in particular recently but data from elsewhere tells us that energy costs can be 60% of the data centre operating cost. In the US, almost 2% of the total use of electricity in the country comes from the IT industry and it has doubled since 2001/02, due to the fast increasing number of applications available. This is a very large amount of energy.”

SEI estimates it is easy for businesses to reduce 20% of their energy costs (and therefore their carbon emissions) applying some basic principles of good usage. With technologies like virtualisation, efficiency (value added for energy used) could be improved by 50%.

“I would be cautious on how much energy datacentres can save. Virtualisation is a phenomenal solution but, in the case of IT businesses, we also need to take into account factors like the age of the technology and the existing infrastructure, but it could reach 50%, if we could double the amount of work using with the same energy,” he adds.

“For a datacentre, energy is the number one cost but companies need to know how much it is costing them, in order to set targets and know where they are going energy-wise.”

For more information:

Jillian Godsil, Practice PR & Events, +353 (0) 53 94 29676

Posted in: Press Releases Tags: datacentre, energy, Novosco, virtualisation