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The Korton Group provides various ICT services through its three operating companies. An example is the hosting of applications and services, which it does through its subsidiary Korton Application Services Provider (KASPer). Since this is a rapidly growing field, the company decided to look for a scalable datacenter architecture that could offer the necessary flexibility in the coming years. Besides a different hosting platform, Telindus-ISIT recommended a new storage environment seamlessly connected to it.

The wholly-owned datacenter of the IT consultancy firm Korton Group has been in operation since 2001, offering hosted services such as online backup. In 2002, the Korton Application Service Provider (KASPer) service was launched, which allows companies to buy virtual workspaces which are hosted in the Korton datacenter. Besides office automation, Korton recently began offering business applications as a virtual service.

More virtualization, fewer servers

Given the growing interest in KASPer among existing and potential customers, the time has come to upgrade the underlying platform and improve its scalability. As Korton already had a partnership with Cisco, Managing Director Peter Altevogt quickly realized that Cisco’s Unified Computing System met his requirements. “The philosophy behind UCS ties in perfectly with our cloud computing vision, i.e. that everything ultimately converges and needs to be accessible using a 10 GB IP connection. With UCS behind you, you can virtualize even more because it combines server, network, storage and virtualization capacity. As a result, we need fewer servers to serve the same number of customers. This makes a big difference in purchase costs, but also in energy consumption.”

Integrated UCS + storage solution

Telindus-ISIT recommends a total solution which, besides UCS, also includes a NetApp storage environment, since the software layer of NetApp offers a lot of flexibility. This makes it technically easier to offer a service like Korton Online Backup. NetApp is also cooperating closely with Cisco and VMware in the ‘Imagine Virtually Anything’ initiative. By visualizing all the components of the datacenter, together they can offer even greater scalability. Altevogt: “The initial investment is a bit higher, given our choice for NetApp, but in the long run this will give us much more flexibility and growth potential.”

Telindus-ISIT: a unique combination

Cisco has a partnership with three parties for UCS. Korton, for its part, chose Telindus-ISIT. Altevogt: “Telindus-ISIT specializes in both networking and storage. This combination ties in perfectly with our needs. It was also the company that we trusted the most. We got on well, and they have experience already of this new technology.”

About Telindus-ISIT

Telindus-ISIT, which is part of the Belgacom Group, specializes in voice, data, video, storage and security convergence. The organization is characterized by objective advice and a high degree of innovation. As ‘The Network & Storage Company’, it is one of the few companies in the market to supply fully integrated end-to-end network and storage solutions to both companies and public and semi-public organizations. Telindus-ISIT also offers various managed services, ranging from managing and monitoring network and storage environments to the entire outsourcing of all network-related activities, such as managed storage and managed WAN optimization. Furthermore, the Education Services department of Telindus-ISIT has an extensive portfolio of ICT training courses, particularly vendor-specific certification courses in the domains of networks, storage and office applications.

Business benefits

- The Cisco UCS and NetApp total solution affords maximum flexibility
-  Services can be offered more easily and thus more quickly
-  A scalable platform offers possibilities for growth in the long term

More info?

For more information on this solution, visit the Belgacom website or contact your Account Manager.