Superior performance and support helps Corporatec stand out from larger rivals

IT consultancy Corporatec works with innovative investment companies that require the highest levels of security, resilience and uptime. Migrating to Amito’s Tier 3 Reading data centre has enabled it to compete with newly emerged rivals on performance, service and agility.

The brief

Businesses in the financial sector are data-heavy, and highly regulated. This makes them demanding customers. Corporatec provides comprehensive IT services to disruptive investment companies, including server hosting solutions and disaster recovery.

Previously based wholly in central London, Corporatec was outgrowing the colocation options available to it locally. It wanted to establish a more strategic long-term partnership with a data centre provider, as well as to find a more cost-effective hosting solution. The team was keen to move outside of the M25, which would allow it to demonstrate the level of disruption resilience expected by its clients.

However, Corporatec still needed fibre-grade connectivity to Tier 1 internet vendors, alongside the highest standard of security measures. Also critical was the ability to support its hot site disaster recovery service, and secure data backup and archiving solutions, which must be available at all times.

At the same time, the business was facing increasing competition in its space from giants such as Amazon Web Services, with whom it was impossible to compete on price.

“It would be cheaper for customers to buy 10 racks from the likes of AWS, so we needed to differentiate ourselves – offering things our competitors can’t – to demonstrate to clients why they should go with us,” explains Vas Proud, Corporatec’s Director and Owner. “Leasing space in Amito’s data centre has enabled us to get smarter about how we deliver our services, which gives us the edge.”

The solution

The initial migration process was “smooth and pain free”, according to Vas Proud, and the Corporatec team appreciated the clarity and simplicity of the service options offered. They were also impressed by the level of physical and cyber security in place across the data centre, in particular the sophisticated built-in attack prevention, which Vas Proud likens to “having a big padlock on the door”.

Once installed, Corporatec has relied largely on Amito’s superior remote hands support to save time and money over sending a team member out to the site. It uses the service as much as possible for routine tasks such as taking delivery of new equipment, replacing components, installing a firmware upgrade or investigating a problem with the hardware.

The team has found Amito’s customer support portal invaluable for providing technical information and requesting support. It also allows access to the facility to be easily arranged if equipment needs to be picked up, a client wants the reassurance of seeing its kit in situ, or a regulator or auditor is paying a visit.

Corporatec values the control and visibility the portal provides over its estate, particularly the ability to monitor power usage, and to easily execute service changes or configurations to servers with the click of a button.

The Amito customer portal also supports highly efficient communications with the Amito team, which Vas Proud picks out as a particular highlight. “Communication has been great – not only when there’s a problem with the infrastructure that we need an engineer to look at, but also on the service management front, for example notifying us about scheduled maintenance.”

Corporatec has seen some significant recent changes, some accelerated by the need for businesses to shift from office-based operations to an off-site hosted solution. This has led to the volume of client data it supports doubling in just four years. It has been able to smoothly accommodate this growth, easily connecting new clients to the data centre, adding hardware, and increasing power or connectivity in a matter of hours.

As competition from rivals such as AWS intensified, Corporatec has been able to leverage the high capacity and bandwidth provided by Amito to meet client demands for increased intelligence on their data, as well as strengthened security and due diligence support to comply with tightening regulation. This has included the launch of new value-add services including real-time remote system monitoring, and an enhanced back-up service which an ‘out of the box’ solution would not have been able to offer.

The outcomes

In addition to enabling Corporatec to meet its initial objectives of finding a cost-effective, secure and reliable hosting solution, Amito has enabled the business to continually evolve its services to stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly crowded market.

• Improved IP connectivity to client sites – providing stronger, more resilient links than the business achieved in previous data centres.
• Super high-level control over operations – with real-time visibility of service, system state and utility usage, and the ability to fully configure services.
• Full client confidence – maximum uptime guaranteed, while best-in-class security protections allow customers to focus on managing their investments.
• Seamless growth and freedom to innovate – with the ability to quickly and easily ramp up space, power and connectivity to support new users and services.

“Having a resilient, reliable offsite data centre space has been a critical part of our success story. Leveraging the services and value Amito provides, and combining this with the intelligence of our people, has enabled us to stay agile and keep competing in the market we’re in.”

Vas Proud, Director and Owner, Corporatec