Focus Micro Systems chooses Integra ICT to develop virtual data centre solution

Integra ICT, a telecoms and ICT distributor from Bedfordshire, has been chosen to provide Focus Micro Systems Ltd, developers of property management software services, with a purpose-built virtual data centre solution with client partitioning capabilities.

The new hosted solution, which comprises dynamic backup and failover facilities, will allow Focus to consolidate existing, standalone services onto a single centralised resource, resulting in improved system performance and security.  It will also allow Focus to offer its clients the full benefits of on-demand ICT services, including the ability to scale up or down as required.

Focus Micro Systems Ltd was founded in 1982 and provides managers and landlords with innovative property management solutions to automate their rent management, tenancy management, letting and advertising processes.

In order to enhance available services for existing and future clients, Focus has taken the decision to migrate its fragmented onsite ICT infrastructure to a hosted environment because of the efficiency, operational, commercial and security benefits virtual data centres have to offer.

Focus began researching virtual hosted service solutions and finally selected Integra as the preferred supplier because of its extensive experience in implementing hybrid cloud solutions (a mixture of onsite and hosted services), enabling Focus to migrate its standalone services in stages to avoid service disruption or system downtime to clients.  Focus is also one of Integra’s existing telephony clients.

Virtual data centres enable organisations to improve efficiency and reduce operational overheads by consolidating fragmented infrastructures onto a centralised resource that is easier to manage and maintain. Virtual data centres also simplify the rollout of new services or software updates and system user can be added or removed as required, offering on-demand ICT facilities.

Integra’s virtual data centre solution utilizes the latest virtualization technologies from leading ICT vendors and is hosted in a secure private cloud environment.  Its core databases are based on enterprise-grade hardware, delivering a reliable and secure platform for all applications that replicates internal ICT infrastructure models.

The project has involved creating purpose-built Microsoft SQL databases, migrating software applications and associated data to a virtual environment with minimum downtime or disruption to service, and creating secure login facilities for individual clients, giving them access to their system and databases only for data protection purposes.

Integra’s virtual data centre has significantly reduced Focus’ ongoing operational costs; the SaaS (software as a service) business model is enabling Focus to expand its existing client base by adding new accounts to the hosted solution quickly and easily and on a pay-monthly basis.

Comments Pas, CEO of Integra; “It is our ethos to develop systems that meet our customer’s exact requirements. We already had an established relationship with their technical team and we have worked in collaboration with them on this project to create the virtual infrastructure needed to support their current and future business needs. Focus wanted to migrate its ICT requirements to the cloud in a controlled manner to minimise disruption and our hybrid solution is facilitating just that.” 

Comments Callum Samuel, development Manager at Focus “Integra worked with us throughout the process giving us the benefit of their SaaS expertise to create a service that is straightforward to manage and support.”

Focus has deployed 200 users onto the new virtual data centre to date and expects this figure to double over the next 12 months.
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