BO Partner chooses ePact to acquire IaaS services via vCloud
Depending on a company’s own expertise, one can turn to a Managed Service Provider and choose to outsource various services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS). In this case we focus on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the most accessible managed solution where the set-up of the IT environment and the final responsibility stays primarily with the customer, BO Partner, itself.
Nowadays, it’s becoming harder for (smaller) IT teams to master all the various aspects of IT and/or it’s harder to fit everything into the daily tasks. Depending on a company’s own expertise, one can turn to a Managed Service Provider and choose to outsource various services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS). In this case we focus on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the most accessible managed solution where the set-up of the IT environment and the final responsibility stays primarily with the customer, BO Partner, itself.
Challenges
BO Partner is a reseller of IT services with clients such as Bulo, Nathan, Eagle Stone and Nonet in its portfolio. Recently, they decided to focus more on their higher-end IT services and rely on a third-party Service Provider to manage their infrastructure.
ePact was asked to work on two proposals. On the one hand a classic storage solution for five years and on the other hand a flexible solution per VM model. BO Partner preferred a solution with the shortest possible contract duration and possibility of renewal. This because they expect that customers will increasingly choose for Cloud storage and the need for physical infrastructure will gradually decrease in the (near) future.
ePact's support allows us to save a lot of time and resources and allows to focus more on our customer-facing IT services.
Solution
Because of the contract length and associated cost, BO Partner chose ePact’s flexible per-VM IaaS solution. These services are offered in a software-defined data center that uses VMware’s private Cloud technology and is hosted in ePact’s vCloud. An advanced IaaS platform consisting primarily of VMware technology that enables secure and reliable Managed IaaS services. Virtual servers are hereby hosted on redundant hardware in the InterXion data center in Zaventem (BRU1), guaranteeing 24/7 availability.
The infrastructure that can be purchased within the IaaS contract are essential compute, storage and network resources. So unlike many other solutions, we can offer a very flexible and scalable platform that, thanks to the software, can also respond to compute as well as storage and firewall needs of the customer.
IaaS solutions provide the much-needed flexibility companies need to scale up and down their IT resources to respond to the fluctuating market. In addition, ePact handles installation and management of daily tasks such as monitoring, scaling hardware resources, patching and upgrades.
BO Partner pays a fixed (monthly) cost, with a minimum commitment of 6 months and the possibility of renewal. For the number of VMs to be purchased, ePact offers a significantly cheaper price compared to other similar solutions. This price difference can be guaranteed by using a resource allocated model with a fixed monthly cost rather than a pay as you grow model. This results in predictable monthly costs.
"We chose IaaS with ePact because of the flexibility and scalability of their platform.
In addition to IaaS services, ePact can also provideo O365 backup services for customers looking for a one stop shop for all infrastructure questions. In addition to IaaS services, ePact can also provideo O365 backup services
for customers looking for a one stop shop for all infrastructure questions. In this case, BO Partner is also supported in their full backup story. Here ePact uses Veeam to ensure that daily (VM) backups run smoothly. Backups are taken with an RPO of one day and are stored externally using Wasabi Cloud Storage.
What's next
There is a trend that companies assign more and more tasks to their IT teams, often resulting in increased workloads. With this flexible IaaS solution ePact wants to take basic infrastructure tasks off their hands and unburden IT teams. In this way, the available resources and manpower can be used for other tasks focusing on the growth of the business. ePact wants to be the partner that can support customers in a flexible way, at the right price.
Website
https://bopartner.be/
Location
Belgium, Brussels & Wallonia
Partner contact
Christof Ugau
christof.ugau@epact.be