News
ControlCircle opens new UK Information Office for press & analysts
July 2008 by Marc Jacob
The datacentre services market is generating considerable
interest and experiencing marked growth as an increasing number of
companies look to shift from a distributed computing model to a
centralised one to better manage IT assets.
This is being driven among other things by concerns about security
(protection against natural disasters, terrorism and day-to-day
burglaries), compliance issues (tougher data retention legislation on,
for example, financial services groups), the need for more capacity
after increased investment in IT following the flat, post dot.com era,
growing online consumer spending and, of course, green issues.
ControlCircle, a City-based datacentre services company focused on
designing, implementing and providing ongoing monitoring & management of mission critical networks and systems, announces the opening of a new Information Office for press and analysts interested in the whole area of datacentres and who require commentary from market and technology experts.
O ControlCircle offers an end-to-end solution covering data
storage, network security, connectivity, hosting and managed services,
for blue chip companies and e-commerce sites requiring complete
confidence in system uptime and security. And it is the breadth of its
managed services (only available to companies if in a datacentre), SAN
and 24/7/365 monitoring and support which sets ControlCircle apart.
O Completely vendor neutral, the company has a consultative
approach to meet client needs and develops bespoke premium solutions
capitalising on a number of strategic relationships with best-of-breed
technology suppliers, including: NetApp (storage), Checkpoint
(firewalls), Foundry Networks (network infrastructure), HP (servers),
Oracle (high availability databases) and Vmware (virtualisation).
ControlCircle is one of Level 3’s master resellers and one of only three
companies in Europe to offer datacentres services to Level 3 clients.
O Based in Canary Wharf, ControlCircle is privately owned, employs
108 staff and has grown organically since it was founded 7 years ago.
In the past three years, it has doubled its installed base winning
business from high quality customers who sign long term support
contracts of typically 3 to 5 years.
O ControlCircle’s success is being achieved by being innovative,
dynamic and excelling in customer care working for companies such as
KPMG, RR Donnelly, Citibank, Sega, Saga, Denton Wilde Sapte and various
high profile e-commerce sites such as Betfair, Tradefair Confetti.co.uk,
Rightmove.co.uk and Moveme.com.
O With ’physical’ datacentre space rented from a variety of
partners, ControlCircle has access to space in 94 datacentres globally,
and has invested in deploying its own 20 gigabit-based Ethernet network
ring in London to provide high speed connectivity between 36 points of
presence (PoPs).
O ControlCircle is therefore well positioned to locate its clients
in multiple datacentres (run by different companies) for disaster
recovery purposes. As a range of partners are used, this approach also
mitigates any risks associated with using just one operator should they
go out of business. For example, a ControlCircle customer could use
Interxion in London, Level 3 in Frankfurt and GlobalSwitch in Amsterdam
all catered for under a single global SLA as required.
Open during normal office hours, the ControlCircle Information Office
can support you by:
o Arranging briefings with senior executives who can provide from
the ’coal face’ commentary, without hype and hyperbole, about what it is
happening today in the datacentre services market, a compare and
contrast of suppliers, views about future trends and so on;
o Providing access to customers who can speak openly about their
decisions to consolidate their critical IT assets in ControlCircle
managed environments;
o Offering views and opinions about key technologies deployed in
datacentres and ControlCircle’s work with strategic technology
suppliers, covering topic areas including:
o Virtualisation;
o Utility computing services i.e ControlCircle today offers a
Storage On Demand solution based on NetApp technology where clients pay
per month per gig used;
o ’Greening’ of the datacentre and green equipment choices;
o Security (both physical and systems related);
o Datacentre asset management;
o System monitoring;
o Customer service and support.
O Discussing what should be best practice in terms of the
client-datacentre supplier relationship and getting the most out of
working with a datacentre services partner.
As part of a mutually productive relationship, we have added you to the
ControlCircle press and analyst database and will you send relevant
company and customer announcements accordingly.
