Managed Services Enterprise

You don’t generate your own electricity, and you probably didn’t build your office – so why should you have to spend the money, time and effort to build and manage your own information technology infrastructure?

Desktops, servers, applications, networks and security each require specialist knowledge (and a considerable investment in time and money) to keep them running smoothly. The annual management cost of a desktop PC alone is estimated to be three or more times its purchase price, much of this because it’s so hard to keep computers updated and configured to suit your business needs. Skilled security professionals are hard to come by, applications need constant maintenance, and data centres are complex and expensive.

In the past, there was no way of avoiding the cost and complexity of IT, but with the emergence of managed service providers like BlueFire, businesses of all sizes have gained access to a revolutionary alternative. Bluefire offers a solution that provides the full IT capabilities of a Fortune 500 company, at a fixed price that’s a fraction of the cost of building & maintaining them yourself.

But a managed services environment isn’t only about making your life easier because we’ve built an infrastructure to last, BlueFire MSE also offers a no-compromises solution to the most pressing business priorities companies face today.

Industry research has confirmed a growing trend in the market that business people have a growing lack of patience when IT does not work and have high expectations that IT must just work.

They come out of professional firms with large IT departments, vested experience and skills. They have experienced the benefits that come with scale, that come with enterprise infrastructure with skilled people and policies and procedures around the management of IT. Their expectation is IT must work and there are no allowances for anything being offline.

Yet with all assumptions comes the challenge to invest in the right technology to allow you to deliver on this expectation.

Computer hardware does fail, a fact that many companies experience, some more often than others. Without the right infrastructure in the correct places, procedures and policies in and around the management of IT practice, the average organisation is exposed to an element of risk. This is reflected in most organisations experiencing intermittent outages of services at least once per annum. This comes at a great cost to business, loss of sales, productivity and staff morale.

The below Managed Services solution leverages the BlueFire network to deliver enterprise IT delivered cost effectively in the same way a fortune 500 company would deliver it - sometime even better.

Your desktop, your data – from anywhere

Desktop and laptop computers are great, but they’re a pain to manage. Software updates, configuration issues, user error, data backup and hardware maintenance are just a few of the factors keeping desktop running costs much more than the hardware itself.

That’s why MSA offers the option of either managing your existing desktops or installing a BlueFire Onsite Server (BOS) at your office. BOS uses rock-solid thin client technology to manage fully functional Windows desktops for all of your users – and these desktops are available from anywhere you can get online.

Whether they’re in the office or out of it, those employees just log onto a dedicated portal and they can access everything on their desktop – all the applications, all their data, and all of your other MSA services – as if they were sitting at their own computer. Meanwhile, desktop management specialists at our 24-hour service desk use industry-leading tools to keep all of your desktops running smoothly.

Our security, your peace of mind

In today’s increasingly connected business world, security is absolutely critical – but choosing the right technologies and, more importantly, managing them properly requires the skills of a security specialist who knows their way through firewalls, intrusion detection systems, spam and virus filters, and more.

Suitable specialists are difficult to come by, and too expensive for all but the largest companies to keep. But we have several, and they have already put in the hard work to make our infrastructure as secure as anything you would find in a major company.

They’re even experienced with the Banking Grade Security qualification for Information Security. Since your data lives on our secure storage infrastructure, we treat your data with the same care and vigilance we treat our own. That means guaranteed protection of your data and applications, so you can have the peace of mind to get on with more important things.

Email: getting the message

Whether you want to give your staff Blackberry handhelds, want email that you can access from anywhere, or just want the benefits of an enterprise-class Microsoft Exchange platform in your office, we can help.

We have devoted considerable time and effort to building a robust, reliable and scalable Exchange infrastructure and can easily add new mailboxes for one, ten or 100 users at your company. We’ll store and archive emails on your behalf, and access via the Web and Blackberry devices ensures staff can always access messages where and when they’re needed.

Disaster? No worries

No matter what your business, unexpected downtime means lost productivity – and lost revenues. While electricity is usually restored quickly, a serious natural disaster such as fire or flood can keep your business in limbo for days or weeks.

This is one of the biggest benefits of a managed services environment. Our dual data centres are always available and configured with enough redundancy to ensure they are always available. If your office becomes inaccessible for any reason, your employees can still access key applications, email, and all their data from home or anywhere else they can get online. This means your business can recover from disasters faster than ever – saving you otherwise irrecoverable time and money.

The system includes the following components

Managed File Services

Delivery of enterprise File Services from the BlueFire core network. Anytime, anywhere access to your information when you need it.

Enterprise Email - Microsoft Exchange 2007

Enterprise Managed Exchange Email System delivered by Microsoft Exchange with Outlook with enterprise achiving, security, PDA - Blackberry, MS Mobiles, Nokia's and remote access

Managed Security Gateway - Clean Internet & Private WAN Communication Links.

Enterprise Security for Provate Communication Links (WAN) , Managed Firewalling, Content Filtering and Managed Clean Internet Services for safe gaurding your data and users from the dangers of the internet. Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Anti-phish and Web Content Security.

24/7 365 Day Support

Support, Monitoring and Management of your corporate network. 24 Hour Service Desk with Advanced Pro-Active IT Automation & Remote Management Tools to ensure you have access to IT Support when you need it.

Remote Access

Anywhere access to your files securely over the internet.

Managed Backup

Enterprise Backup Systems to backup your data securely and allow easy restoration of your information on demand.

Application Publishing

We host and deploy your applications to you via the BlueFire systems. eg, If you own and operate SAP, BlueFire will work with your application support vendors and publish your application to all your users regardless of their location.

The Managed Desktop is an established service that delivers an enterprise desktop based around expectations of a ASX List Top 500 corporation. A service that leverages BlueFire’s investment in infrastructure, systems and people, designed with no single points of failure to offer high reliability, resilience and scale. Facilities that provide an enterprise environment for servers, provides all critical services such as Communications, Backup, Security, Storage, Monitoring, Management, Reporting and highly secured Internet services.

The secure virtual desktop delivers anywhere access to you applications, files and email. The exact same desktop is delivered to you regardless of whether you are working in the office, at home or at a client's site. Online & offline access is available to allow mobile workers to work on documents while mobile. 24/7 support structures are available with remote control capabilities allowing easy support when you need assistance.

The solution was drafted through listening to our clients and understanding in depth what any small to medium business' expectations are regarding IT. Small and medium businesses cannot justify spending the amount of money it takes to build the type of IT environment that most require. The concept is build a best of breed IT environment and leverage this across many clients. As a result you can deliver best of breed IT experience at a small to medium business cost.

This goes hand in hand with a documented service level agreement with guidelines and commitments to RESPONSE and RESOLVE times. Financial penalties apply in the event of BlueFire failing to meet these commitments. With any service level guarantee this is useless without the proper systems that provide accountability through reporting. BlueFire provides a 24 hour Web Portal to provide this information on demand. Easily traceable and accountable tickets can be monitored and all correspondence and actions are tracked through the use of audit trails.

BlueFire uses the best equipment available from Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Check Point security products, and Citrix centralisation thin client technology.

Evolution through advances in telecommunications infrastructure has permitted for the availability of high speed internet services to grant anywhere access to your information. The ability to build the infrastructure once and deliver this to many locations is very much a reality. You can simply purchase your IT in the same way you currently purchase electricity.

No matter what your industry, and no matter what your expectations or requirements from IT, BlueFire MSE can be tailored to suit your needs. With most of the complexity taken out of your environment, you and your employees will be able to think less about technology, and focus more on what really matters: your business.

Workforce Mobility

Since all of your data and applications reside on our servers, they are accessible via secure Internet connections no matter where your employees are located. This means they can work from home, access key files from their smartphone while visiting a customer’s office, check email from anywhere using Blackberry devices or our Webmail service, or move between branch offices without worrying where their key files are located. Improved mobility also allows companies to implement ‘hot desking’, whereby the need for floor space is reduced by providing common-use desks that are available whenever mobile employees drop in. Online and Offline anywhere access enables efficient working to all authorised users.

Business Continuity

Our data centres have all of the features you would expect to find in a top-tier business: redundant communications links, backup power generators, backup cooling, and continuous backup of data from one site to another. All this means one thing: your data and applications are always protected, and continuously available for your use. Even if your office faces disasters like flooding or fires, you can be up and running immediately just by logging into your BlueFire MSE service from an alternative location.

Data Security

We treat your data and applications with all the care and protection we would if it were our own. Not only is data backed up regularly, but it’s only available through our BlueFire Private Network, to which your business is securely connected, or to remote users via our secure Internet portal. In line with the principles of Banking Grade Security qualification for Information Security, our security-trained personnel manage firewalls, intrusion detection systems, Web and spam filters, and more. End-to-end security from us means peace of mind for you.

Guaranteed Performance

We’ve spared no dollar building the best IT infrastructure money can buy. We’re so sure it will provide the services you need that we back BlueFire MSE with fixed service level agreements (SLAs) that ensure you will never be left in the dark when it comes to your key business services. These SLA’s are all about commercial guarantees rather than technical complexities. This results in clear outlines of accountability that are easily measured.

IT Efficiency

In a managed services environment, there’s no need to spend money on overspecified servers you don’t need, applications you don’t use, and desktops that need replacing every few years. The sheer size of our data centre environment has given us economies of scale that we pass on to our customers. Buy what you need, when you need it. Because you only pay a flat rate per user, your IT expenditure is minimised and highly predictable – making financial controllers happy and freeing your staff to focus on building the business.

Branch Office Management

If your company has many branch offices, keeping them in sync while doing IT yourself is extremely difficult - witness the recent trend towards consolidating all IT capabilities in central, massive data centres. We’ve done the consolidation already, which means the BlueFire MSE solution scales from one desktop to a dozen or more branch offices without batting an eyelid. Without even trying, you can finally give all branch office employees access to the same applications, security, data and messaging infrastructure.

Corporate Governance

As if running your own IT isn’t complicated enough, an increasingly complex and demanding legal landscape has made it imperative to effectively manage and control your company data. Defining these controls is hard enough, but mapping them into software is simply more complicated than many companies can manage. At BlueFire, however, we’ve done the hard yards already, building up a clearly defined managed services offering that meets specific governance objectives in areas such as data security, retention and access control. This has attracted many US companies in the region looking for Sarbanes Oxley and Hippa legislative compliance.

24/7 Support

Think of BlueFire MSE as the end of sleep deprivation – for you, at least. Rain or shine, night and day, our technical experts are on hand to make sure your managed IT environment is running optimally. Proactive monitoring and management ensures you’re always running the most up-to-date environment possible, and potential issues are identified and dealt with early on to ensure smooth sailing for all. No matter when you need us or why, we’re here to help you make the most of what tomorrow’s information technology has to offer – today.

Benefits

ENTERPRISE IT

Enterprise IT Enviroment delivering Desktop Management, reduced TCO, improved management and flexibility, end user productivity & no single points of failure with included high availability services.

EMAIL SYSTEM

Enterprise Managed Exchange Email System delivers Microsoft Exchange with Outlook to all users on your corporate network.

DESKTOP MANAGEMENT

Granular Management of Desktop - included SOE - Standard Operating Enviroment based on the following profiles - Office Worker, Power User & Mobile User.

REMOTE ACCESS

Anywhere access to your desktop securely over the internet

FILE SYSTEM

Delivery of file services to all users on your corporate network.

MANAGED SECURITY GATEWAY

Enterprise Security, Firewalling, Content Filtering and Managed Internet Services for safe guarding your data and users from the dangers of the internet. Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Anti-phish and Web Content Security.

ONGOING SUPPORT

Support, Monitoring and Management of your corporate network. 24 Hour Service Desk with Advanced Remote Management Tools ensure you have access to IT Support when you need it.

MANAGED BACKUP

Enterprise Backup Systems to backup your data securely and allow easy restoration of your information on demand.

This page is under construction

Mission

Deliver Enterprise IT Infrastructure as a Service to businesses delivering cost efficiencies, economies of scale, no single points of failure by leveraging best of breed systems with fixed costs with service level guarantees . The ability to leverage a little or a lot based on your requirements in order to deliver a better and more cost effective IT environment than what they can do yourselves.

Established

Market Leader in Managed Services in Asia Pacific Region
12 years established experience
Stable Profitable Business with 90% of revenues contracted monthly fees
Service Level Guarantees with financial penalties

Industry Knowledge

BlueFire is a market leader in the IT Infrastructure as a Service market place and has 12 years of experience in the delivery of these services.

Certifications

Microsoft Gold Partner
Citrix Gold Partner
Citrix Ready
VMware VSSP
Symantec xSP

Experts by any definition.

Highly Trained, Certified Infrastructure engineering experts – experts by any definition.

Ownership - BlueFire is owned by Dimension Data.

Founded in 1983 at the inception of networked communications with a simple vision – to do great things - Dimension Data is a specialist IT services and solutions provider that helps clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures. Today we are positioned at the forefront of networking and communications in 47 countries around the world.

By continually building on our knowledge and expertise in IT infrastructure technologies, we have become a recognised global leader in the provision and management of specialist IT infrastructure solutions. We plan, build, support and manage IT infrastructure solutions that help over 6,000 clients achieve their business goals. Drawing on our experience in network integration, security, converged communications, data centres and storage, contact centre and Microsoft technologies, we deliver a full lifecycle of IT services.

Dimension Data at a glance

Founded in 1983
2008 revenues of $4.5 billion
Listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange Limited
A client base that spans all industry sectors including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, government and education
Over 11,055 highly skilled employees
Established global footprint coupled with unrivalled experience in emerging markets
Strategic partnerships with leading technology vendors, including Cisco and Microsoft
Recognised industry leader with 56 industry awards in 2008

For more information, visit www.dimensiondata.com.au

Delegated Management, Tools & Control Panels.

BlueFire provides delegated management tools to allow our clients to self manage, administer and have visibility to the functioning performance of their infrastructure service.

Environmentals

Environmental control units that give a 100% SLA-guaranteed temperature and humidity within a certain range, plus the most advanced pre-action fire-suppression systems available.
Raised floors and zone-4 certified for earthquakes.
Dual-feed 12KV power supply from PG&E, plus N+1 redundancy with redundant power feeds.
UPS modules and PDUs with static switches on front end and emergency redundant back-up diesel generators.
Fully-redundant, roof-mounted, 1500-ton, Liebert system with common ducting, plus security via the elimination of water-filled piping from the datacenter space.
CRAC units in the electrical and UPS rooms.

Security

All premises are closely monitored and guarded, 24x7x365, with sophisticated pan/tilt CCTV covering every part of the facility and security guards posted at all entrances.
Access to servers is restricted to a limited number of authorized engineers and security is strictly enforced using the very latest technology, including man-trap technology, motion sensors and controlled ID key-cards.
BlueFire has many customers who demand high security, including financial services clients, hedge funds, pharmaceutical companies, lawyers & accountants.

Data Center and Collocation

BlueFire is a leading IT infrastructure provider delivering highly scalable hosting solutions. Our state-of-the-art data center achieved ISO 27001, reflecting a consistent, reliable and secure operating environment to support customers worldwide.

24x7 physical security with guards, cameras and biometric monitoring ensures all angles of security are covered.

BlueFire Primary Datacentre – Optus Tier 1 Datacentre is certified under ISO27001 (Information Security Management Systems ISMS, certification for EXPAN™ Co-location services at its Ultimo Data Centre in Sydney).

ISO 27001 is a globally recognised standard governing security of information and network systems. Optus’ accreditation follows a thorough assessment of its hosting services including the identification and implementation of rigorous controls to meet the information security needs of its corporate and government customers.

Connectivity

National MPLS Network across Australia.
BlueFire Data centre’s have 8 x Carrier Connections – Optus, Uecomm, Digital River, PIPE Networks, Pacnet, Powertel, AAPT, Soul & Telstra Services.
Redundant Internet Services provided by Optus, Uecomm & Digital River.
Dark Fibre connects multiple datacenters & available across Australia.

Infrastructure

Compliant State of the art data centre.
Enterprise Class Hewlett Packard Blade Servers.
Nightly backup & Disaster Recovery Services.
Proactive monitoring of servers, devices and backup systems.
State of the art security, content security – anti-virus, spam & patches, intrusion prevention and layer 7 data analysis.
Redundant high speed Storage Area Networks (SANs)
Hardware maintenance & Upgrades Included
Secure access controls to data centre: two factor authentication, biometric scanners.
24 x 7 x 365 Network Operation Centre (NOC) – Service Desk.
Backup power systems and built-in redundancy.
Minimal latency and no single point of failure.
Adheres to Microsoft best practices for infrastructure deployments.
Active Passive cluster server configuration for ultimate resilience, plus seamless failover when a cluster node is unavailable or taken offline for maintenance.
Redundant and load-balanced servers increase reliability.