iomart Expertise
This explosion of cloud computing has been accompanied by a growing number of companies offering cloud services, from hosting to networking to application design to backup and storage to name just a few. The cloud has also become increasingly regulated as customers and organisations have legitimate concerns around where their data is physically held and how secure it is.
iomart understands that there’s really no one size fits all cloud solution. We’ve been delivering cloud services from our network of data centres, wholly owned within the UK across 8 different locations and connected by a high speed dark fibre network. Globally, we have data centre presence in 6 locations across the US as well as the Middle East and SE Asia.
Across the iomart family of companies we have a range of customers across multiple industries, of various sizes and at different stages of their cloud journey, from absolute beginners with traditional on premise solutions to fully cloud enabled. We also deliver the full range of cloud solutions to our customers, from hosting platforms, networking, security, virtual desktop infrastructure, data backup and storage and disaster recovery.
Partnerships
We’ve established partnerships with premier cloud solution providers to offer our customers a full suite of options to best suit their needs, for example:
iomart offers cloud backup and storage solutions based on EMC’s Avamar, Data Domain, Atmos and GeoDrive. Additionally, we have installed EMC hardware, including
iomart offers Managed AWS, providing
customers with all the features and benefits of the extensive AWS range with the support As one of Microsoft’s first Cloud Solution Providers in the UK, we can deliver, manage and support a range of Microsoft’s cloud offerings including We’ve partnered with Arbor Networks, the world’s leading provider of DDoS protection solutions, to provide their Peakflow protection to We also provide Asigra’s enterprise grade backup solution to a range of customers, storing petabytes of data for some of the UK’s biggest companies.
Consultancy Services
With a wealth of experience across the entire iomart family, customers covering all sectors, industries and sizes; and a comprehensive range of cloud services and solutions, we’re ideally
placed to deliver consultation and support to any organisation, at any stage of its cloud journey.
We have a dedicated team of Cloud Consultants who will work with you to understand your existing IT environment, where you would like to take it, and identify the best solution to your requirements. We offer a truly independent and agnostic service thanks to the relationships we’ve built with leading solution providers and will only recommend the solution that will match your needs. Our Consultancy process follows some key steps to ensure we’ve a complete understanding of your needs and how to achieve your goals.
1. REQUIREMENTS -
GATHER, DEFINE AND CLEARLY SET OUT REQUIREMENTS
• iomart will develop a Requirements Document to capture your wants, issues and business needs. Our consultants will then use our technical knowledge to help you form an understanding of the solutions you require and the goals of the project.
• This Requirements Document will ultimately be used to measure the success of the project. • Once you’ve verified and signed off this document, iomart will kick off the project.
2. DISCOVERY –
GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE CURRENT IT ENVIRONMENT
• Building on the Requirements Document, a number of discovery work streams will be created. In short, iomart will perform a gap analysis between where your current environment is now, to where you would like to be.
• Discovery provides invaluable knowledge of the challenges facing your business and what the business is trying to achieve.
• You would then verify and sign this off to allow iomart to progress to the next stage.
3. HIGH LEVEL DESIGN –
RESEARCH AND DESIGN SOLUTION
• At this stage, iomart would create a High Level Design. This identifies all the resources and components required to fill the identified gap and deliver on the project goals. This is then ordered to allow the project to
start.
• The High Level Design stage provides an overview of the entire system components and how they integrate; it lists all of the resources, hardware and software that make up the solution in a bill of materials.
4. DETAILED DESIGN AND PROOF –
TEST THE SOLUTION
• A detailed design and build process will then begin. Ideally this is done within a test environment, software etc. and allows bugs, configuration and tuning aspects to be identified and dealt with prior to going live. It also creates a document set with specific settings and configurations for disaster recovery and other reference purposes. • Low Level designs are a step by step guide of the installation and configuration of the solution. This gives your internal IT team knowledge and provides them with a build guide to use in the event of Disaster Recovery.
• End to end testing of the functionality and against the stated requirements is then conducted
to allow both iomart and you to have the confidence to move on to the next stage. This would be carried out in collaboration with you to approve and move on to the next stage.
5. IMPLEMENT –
DEPLOY THE SOLUTION
• iomart would produce a Migration Document to be agreed with the you prior to implementation. • Implementation should be phased where possible so that any issues can be dealt with without affecting your entire environment.
• To achieve this, iomart would recommend a pilot. This would be used to iron out any unforeseen technical issues as well as allowing us to refine the implementation process. • You would then sign off a Customer Acceptance document for completed delivery against the agreed Migration Document.
6. CLOSURE –
HAND OVER AND FINAL SIGN OFF
• Closure and final sign off is extremely important. It shows completeness of the solution and allows iomart to gather feedback on the project from you.
• Lessons from the project can be learned and fed into the system for next time. • Items such as ongoing support and maintenance would also be discussed at this stage.
Customer Range
Across the iomart family we have a complete range of customers covering major industries such as:
Travel & Transport,
Public Sector,
Education,
Banking
,
Finance & Insurance,
Media & Creative and many more.
G Cloud
iomart has been delighted to supply the UK public sector via the G Cloud initiative every year since 2012. As an accredited supplier, we can offer our first class infrastructure – from bespoke hybrid clouds through to data storage and archiving.
Pan Government Accreditation
iomart was awarded Pan Government Accreditation (PGA) by the UK Cabinet Office for our CloudSure hosting platform, infrastructure, email, backup and storage solutions. The PGA certifies that iomart can process official information for the public sector. Central and local government departments are able to use iomart’s service without the need to seek an independent assessment.
A customer base of this breadth has given us a great insight into the different pressures and demands on various industries and sizes of organisations. Whether it’s legal or regulatory pressures driving data retention policies, budgetary considerations or complex infrastructure requirements to handle cutting edge technologies, iomart’s team understand how they affect your business decisions and can suggest the most appropriate cloud solution.
Accreditations
We understand the concerns that are held by organisations who have a direct and legal responsibility for their data and have taken steps to ensure that you can be completely confident in the security, location and accessibility of your data. We’ve implemented multiple systems and processes to allay any fears including implementing and achieving a range of industry standards and independently assessed accreditations. Here's just a selection:
