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Benoît Frachon, CEO, Proxival

Global Security Mag: Can you introduce your company, your market position and typical client?

Benoît Frachon : Proxival was created six years ago and we offer a host of innovative IT management services for SMEs, major group subsidiaries and local authorities.

Our team, comprised of twenty engineers and technicians, develops strategic IT management solutions. Our role as shared-time IT manager is well suited to the professional and organisational constraints of our clients.

Our aim is to free SME managers from daily IT management tasks, reduce workload and improve IT quality of service.

Today, Proxival is implanted and expanding in industrial, health and local authority sectors. We offer a total local ISO 20 000 IT management solution. The entire Proxival team is ITIL V3 certified.

When it comes to global IT management solutions, we put an entire IT infrastructure at the disposal of our client: servers, Synerway Appliances, LAN, WAN, workstations, printers etc. which all remain in the client’s own server rooms. We then manage these systems on a daily basis.
We handle the support side which ensures service availability, capacity and professional application security. All these services are underpinned by contractual Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

GS Mag : Why did you choose Synerway solutions and the new addition of the SVA (Synerway Virtual Appliance)?

Benoît Frachon : To ensure service levels are met, Proxival implements an IT Operation Continuity Plan for each client. These plans require high quality data and system restoration solutions.

From the outset, Proxival chose Synerway Appliances. Four of our engineers are Synerway certified.

The reason for this choice lies in the ease of implementation and the operational simplicity together with the separation of the hardware and protected operating systems: an Appliance is far simpler than standard backup software, both in terms of installations and operations.

We have deployed Synerway Appliances in around 15 server rooms which we manage for our clients in our data center.

We systematically implement virtualised architectures on our client premises. When Synerway informed us of their virtual Appliance project, we were keen to be the first client especially because there was nothing new to learn because the virtual Appliances are in every way identical to the physical Appliances which we know so well.

The SVA (Synerway Virtual Appliance) affords plenty of flexibility and choice of installation in terms of hardware architectures.

GS Mag: You have used the SVA since January 2011. What major strengths and advantages have you identified for you and your clients?

Benoît Frachon :The SVA has simplified the implementation and management of our data management contracts both logistically (no need to manage hardware stocks or plan deliveries) and in terms of the choice of VM. We typically install the SVA on a secondary server and disk storage is ideally performed outside of the server room.

We appreciate the simplicity of the Synerway Appliance interface and the rapid disk-based remote restorations.

What’s more, as part of our service, we offer externalisations for our client backups. We have implemented backup replication over the network to a physical Synerway Appliance an LB16000 with an 8-slot library installed on our data center. With this centralised data center, we can create tapes for our clients based on their data retention requirements and procedures.
Our client server rooms are connected via an MPLS to this data center thus creating a backup cloud.

GS Mag: What are your conclusions on this new Synerway Appliance?

Benoît Frachon : The simplicity of configuring and implementing Synerway Appliances has been proven over and over and the same can be said for the SVA. It enables us to optimise disk space and fructify our investments.

In particular, the SVA enables us to deliver a level of service which lives up to client expectations and commitments.
The SVA is very much part of our quest for service quality improvement and in line with our policy of efficiency and performance.

Direct Line: +33 (0)1 76 78 34 49
Tel: +33 (0)1 76 78 34 44
Fax: +33 (0)1 30 47 18 98
Email: agnes.laurent@synerway.com
www.synerway.com