January 2009

Johnson Tiles selects AssurIT for System i High Availability

AssurIT is pleased to announce that it has entered into a partnership with another new iSeries customer.

Johnson Tiles, the UK's leading manufacturer of ceramic tiles, has signed a 3 year agreement with AssurIT to provide a System i managed high availability solution.

February 2009

Fabris Lane selects AssurIT as IT infrastructure managed services partner

AssurIT has been selected as the strategic managed service partner for Fabris Lane.

Fabris Lane, the UK's largest eyewear company, is trusting AssurIT to provide a 24 x 7 service to support its key business applications and end-user services.

The agreement will cover the organisations core computing platforms including System i, Intel and desktop environment in a mix of remote and on-site support services.

March 2009

Timeform signs managed service contract with AssurIT

Timeform, a division of Betfair, the UK's leading provider of horse racing form guides, has signed a long-term contract with AssurIT for the provision of an iSeries high availability managed services

April 2009

Brighthouse Stores selects IBM enterprise storage

Brighthouse Stores, the UK's leading pay weekly store, has selected AssurIT and IBM to a deliver a business critical SAN solution to support a major new application

May 2009

AssurIT and Smallnet announce IBM Information Server win at Munich Re UK

Munich Re is a €21.8bn business offering solutions for the entire spectrum of reinsurance.

AssurIT, in partnership with Smallnet, engaged with Munich Re in late 2008 to provide an additional development environment for their IBM Information Server platform.

We have continued to work closely with Munich Re offering advice and technical support, culminating in a Production licence sale of IBM Information Server in April 2009.

IBM Information Server is the new name for the Ascential DataStage product set.

AssurIT and Smallnet partner with IBM to provide pre and post sales support for this environment.

For more information on this product please follow the link below:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/infosphere/info-server/overview/

May 2009

Goodridge selects AssurIT for long term System i support

Goodridge, the worlds leading supplier of automotive hoses and fittings, has selected AssurIT as it's long term System i hardware and support partner.

Goodridge has signed a 3 year contract for System i monitoring, technical support and security management and has also placed an order for a new System i upgrade to support continued business growth.

AssurIT will be managing the migration from the existing hardware to the new machine as part of the overall project.

The company has also extended it's IBM SHARP contract, which delivers a fully managed System i high availability service, to the end of 2012, in order to support the new production system.

June 2009

AssurIT appointed IBM Power 6 System reseller status

AssurIT is now fully accredited to sell the IBM Power 6 Systems i solution set, having successfully completed the sales and technical training and accreditations required to achieve this status.

July 2009

AssurIT selected as service delivery partner for IBM Express Remote Managed Service

IBM has announced a range of remote managed services aimed at meeting the needs of the mid-market under it's 'Express' portfolio banner.

IBM will provide office hours or 24 x 7 services covering as much, or as little, of a clients IT infrastructure as required, all priced significantly lower than IBM's Enterprise level offerings.

What makes this service different is IBM's ability to 'offer' instant price quotations using a new on-line pricing tool and it's ability to take on customers in a short time frame.

AssurIT is pleased to announce that it has been selected to deliver the System i remote manage service component of this service for IBM.

Steve Ellis, AssurIT's Managing Director, is delighted with the new agreement:

"AssurIT has built a reputation for delivering a high standard of managed services at a very competitive price in IBM's System i user base.

AssurIT is already a proven services partner of IBM with the SHARP high availability service and so extending this service to cover production systems make perfect sense.

IBM trusts us to deliver.

The challenge with selling IBM services to SME customers has always been the price and IBM has addressed that now. It is also enabling its channel partners to take this to market and they are the people who really understand how to sell services to the customers this service is targeted at.

You can have the security of an IBM contract for much, much less than you might think, that is a proposition that we are happy to invest in"

July 2009

High Street retailer selects AssurIT to manage new business application

A major High Street retailer has selected AssurIT to manage the Linux infrastructure that will underpin its new stores management application.

The application, which is business critical, has been developed over a period of 18 months to provide the flexibility needed to support the organisation as it grows to over 200 stores.

AssurIT has been awarded a 3 year contract to provide 24 x 7 operational management and monitoring for the infrastructure which includes Oracle databases, Linux and Windows operating systems, a VM Ware server infrastructure and a SAN environment.

July 2009

AssurIT Supplies and Implements Barracuda SSL VPN at Tradex Insurance

AssurIT are delighted to announce the sale of and subsequent implementation of Barracuda SSL VPN at Tradex Insurance in their Docklands Head Office.

Tradex had evaluated the Hardware on a small cross section of users prior to deciding the Hardware was fit for purpose.

AssurIT secured the business against 3 other competitors and implemented the solution in just a few hours at Tradex's site. Our value proposition was based on price point and rapid implementation timescales. The Barracuda solution now delivers remote access to multiple users across Tradex locations.

Information on Barracuda SSL VPN

The Barracuda SSL VPN is an integrated hardware and software solution enabling secure, clientless remote access to internal network resources from any Web browser. Designed for remote employees and road warriors, the Barracuda SSL VPN provides comprehensive control over file systems and Web-based applications requiring external access. The Barracuda SSL VPN integrates with third-party authentication mechanisms to control user access levels and provides single sign-on.

• Enables access to corporate intranets, file systems or other Web-based applications
• Tracks resource access through auditing and reporting facilities
• Scans uploaded files for viruses and malware
• Leverages multi-factor, layered authentication mechanisms, including RSA SecurID tokens
• Integrates with existing Active Directory and LDAP directories
• Utilizes policies for granular access control framework
• Supports any Web browser on PC or Mac

Please contact AssurIT on 02476 560030 or email sales@assurit.com for a quotation or more information.

September 2009

Wells and Young's sign Managed Services Contract to Protect their Core Systems

AssurIT have agreed a 3 year Managed Services contract with Wells and Young's Brewing Company.  The contract covers out of hours cover across core servers, an off site end user helpdesk facility and 24x7 High Availability for the iSeries production server.

Phil Bly, Head of IT at Wells & Young's Brewing Company comments ‘From the work undertaken with the AssurIT team it is clear that there is an excellent match between the requirement WYBC had defined and the services that AssurIT proposed. There is also a strong match in company styles which I am sure will allow us to have a mutually beneficial relationship. The scope of the services that have been taken up by WYBC allow us provide the full level of IT services that are required within our expanding and developing business”

Steve Ellis, Managing Director at AssurIT comments 'We are delighted to have signed a managed service contract of this nature with Wells and Young's.  AssurIT will provide key 'out of hours' support across their core IT Infrastructure and enable their business users to contact an IT helpdesk.  The business critical iSeries production system will be covered by our 24x7 High Availability service providing the confidence that should a disaster recovery situation arise, AssurIT will invoke an up to date replica environment hosted at our Coventry data centre.  The net effect will be minimal downtime and data loss.'

October 2009

AssurIT..... IBM Information Management Award - Rookie of the Year Finalist

Over six thousand attendees came together in Las Vegas for the Information On Demand 2009 Event to learn how IBM could help Companies turn their information into a strategic driver of innovation, business optimization and competitive differentiation. The conference also held the 2009 Information Management Awards which recognized Business Partners who demonstrated excellence in delivering exceptional business value for information management and provided cutting-edge solutions based on IBM's Information Management portfolio.

From over 2,000 Business Partners worldwide, AssurIT were one of only three companies, and the only one from the UK to be recognised for sales of Information Management software.

Steve Ellis, AssurIT's Managing Director says 'We have invested heavily in assisting IBM to provide cutting-edge solutions over the last twelve months and see Information Management as a key driver for our growth going forward'.

December 2009

AssurIT secures Monitoring contract for Vibrant Media's SQL Environment

AssurIT are delighted to announce the signing of a multi year managed services contract with Vibrant Media, the online video advertising network and leading provider of contextual video advertising.

The managed service contract encompasses the monitoring of alerts on Vibrant Media's core SQL Server databases during out of hours operations.  AssurIT's technical operators will then take steps to resolve the issue or escalate to nominated Vibrant Media employees.

It is key that during out of hours operations, the java based monitoring console devised in-house by Vibrant Media is monitored.  Database outages are not acceptable to the business and can quickly become expensive should they not be noticed for a period of time.  AssurIT's solution means that between the hours of 18:00 and 08:30 the environment is monitored and responded to accordingly when alerts are issued.

Steve Ellis, Managing Director at AssurIT commented 'This represents a significant win for AssurIT and we are grateful to be trusted with this business critical monitoring contract. It demonstrates AssurIT's flexibility to branch into technical areas away from our core business of System I and Intel server management.  AssurIT are now well positioned to monitor databases on behalf of companies who require 24x7 coverage.'

If you are interested in discussing your monitoring requirements with AssurIT please contact sales@assurit.com