If you’re planning to expand your IT infrastructure to the cloud, Microsoft’s products will have you covered, with Azure undoubtedly being a market leader in the world of cloud platforms. Well, once you’ve made up your mind, what’s stopping you from purchasing the service directly from Microsoft? Why introduce an intermediary? Here’s the answer.

Being a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have invested a lot in our team to gain an intimate understanding of the ins and outs of Azure. From initial planning to the actual integration of Azure into your infrastructure, our team of experts will be there along the way to help you. Thanks to our technical expertise and experience in working with large businesses, we follow best practices when working with Azure. You’ll also get the full suite of services at a better rate – but that’s just the cherry on top.

In order to utilize the cloud to its full potential, a reliable network is required. BMIT can help you make the leap to Azure with MultiCloud Connect. At its backbone is our high-speed international network - the only one of its kind in Malta. It allows us to bridge the gap between Azure and your IT infrastructure in a stable manner.

We also understand the importance of compliance requirements. Some data may be too sensitive to be hosted on the public cloud, whereas some businesses may be required to keep a copy of their data locally for certain certifications. Well, there’s a solution – Azure Stack by BMIT, which allows you to get access to an instance of Azure hosted locally at our data centres. Through Azure Stack you can work with the Azure ecosystem from Malta, getting the best of both worlds – no compliance issues as well as reduced latency.

Azure is a powerful platform, offering computing power scalable with the click of a mouse, databases of all kinds fit for your needs and more. The options are highly available, secure, and cost-effective. Moreover, with BMIT you can also rely on our Azure managed services – an additional layer of support which allows you to focus on what’s most important while leaving the rest to us.

If you have any further questions about how your business can benefit from cloud solutions and how companies are using Azure and Azure Stack, feel free to contact us. For a full list of Azure services, visit our product page.

As technology moves forward and the world grows more connected, there is a growing interest in businesses to move their operations to the cloud. Hybrid cloud, featuring a combination of public and private architectures, blends the best of both worlds, making it an attractive option.

With a hybrid solution provided by BMIT, you’ll almost never have to worry about downtime – we guarantee operations at the highest level. Flexibility in data access is another advantage, allowing you to share necessary data in a form available to everyone on all devices, while your more secure data is kept on a private server in our data center.

However, with the increase in popularity, there is a similar increase in concerns. Let’s figure out why you shouldn’t be worried.

Costs

It may seem at first that using a cloud is expensive, but this is where the cloud’s scalability really shines. Instead of stocking up on power for future uses, you can choose the exact amount that fits your current requirements. Upgrading is always an option, but you won’t be paying extra until you need it.

You should also keep in mind that having a server on your own premises isn’t exactly cheap either - expenses don’t end at the purchase. Costs for cooling and power purposes can rack up to 100 euros or more per month just for one server, without maintenance and support taken into account. However, with private servers kept at BMIT, we can optimize the management, meaning fewer expenses for you.

Security

Keeping your data safe is crucial, and you can sleep soundly with the largest cloud providers out there. The data itself is encrypted according to the latest standards, and the servers are heavily guarded. Businesses all around the globe trust companies like Amazon and Microsoft, so you can be sure your data is in the right hands.

New Network Design

Expanding your IT capabilities to the cloud may seem like a daunting task. Both the private and public sectors have to be managed, different types of data need different security requirements, as well as other factors. But this is where we come in and make the transition easy, so you can focus on what’s important – your business.

Of course, a change in your IT infrastructure isn’t a decision one makes out the blue. If you still feel like hybrid isn’t the way for your company to go, or you have any further questions, we’re more than happy to help you out. You can contact us or read more about our cloud services here.

This article was featured on the EGR B2B Winners Report 2019. You can view the printed article here.

As the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and this fits perfectly with the realities of online gaming operators. The constant focus on launching innovations to end-users or deploying solutions and platforms to B2B clients requires both breadth and depth in terms of skillset and resources but also the ability to ensure that everything performs to a tee, all the time.

This is where service providers such as BMIT Technologies play a critical role. Winners of the 2019 IT Service Provider EGR award, the recently publicly listed company [MSE: BMIT], has further extended its services portfolio as it continues to serve its wide base of online gaming customers, ranging from innovative start-ups and small operators, to mid-size B2B and B2C operators to some of the largest gaming operators worldwide.

Originally known as a datacentre provider, BMIT Technologies has actually continued to invest in this area, with the announcements of the opening of yet another datacentre in Malta – a €10+ million investment in a purposely-built facility, designed to be Tier 3 certified once inaugurated in 2020. This investment complements the company’s other two datacentres in Malta, and its points of presence in Italy and Germany. As with all its facilities, the new datacentre will also be interlinked to BMIT’s high speed international private network, which provides one-of-a-kind speeds and security features for all BMIT Technologies customers. 

Customers’ demands for cloud solutions and hybrid cloud set-ups is on a continuous rise, and in this context BMIT Technologies has adopted a multi-pronged approach to ensure that customer requirements are satisfied. Over these last years the company has deployed a number of public cloud services, related to computing, storage, productivity and hosting, as well as a number of managed private and hybrid cloud services. These allow customers to tap into BMIT’s pool of technical experts and platforms, and define the optimal infrastructure requirements, which generally ensure a pay-as-you-go, scalable solution, which grows as business grows. Topping these offerings are a range of managed IT services, which allow customers to fully or partially delegate the management of their infrastructure to BMIT Technologies, and therefore further optimise their investments and resources.

In the context of increasing hybrid cloud requirements, as well as the deployment of services over global cloud platforms, BMIT has also announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft, which would allow it to deploy a range of managed services over Microsoft’s Azure platform globally. Additionally, the company will also be enabling hybrid cloud capabilities on Azure through Azure Stack, starting from Q4 2019, as it addresses regulatory and compliance requirements of customers wishing to deploy services on the cloud.

Security requirements and compliance concerns have always been top-of-mind topics for CEOs, CTOs and CSOs across organisations, and as infrastructures becomes increasingly complex, across platforms and sometimes across jurisdictions, security and compliance matters can become nightmare subjects unless handled appropriately. BMIT Technologies’ comprehensive security portfolio covers services and solutions such as managed firewalls, backups and disaster recovery solutions, unified threat management, remote access solutions and more recently, productivity-related security options.

Gone are the days when productivity products are seen as distinct from the rest of the company’s core IT systems. With employees working from different locations and requiring continuous access to company resources, CTOs are increasingly looking at solutions which allow for flexibility and ease of access without compromising the security of the organisational data. Microsoft Office 365 is most likely the most obvious choice for these requirements, as it provides a pay-per-use truly complete suite of solutions, with different plans: from the popular Word, Excel and PowerPoint to increasingly useful tools such as Teams, combined with SharePoint, which allows for easy collaboration, document share and communication all in one software.

All services are constantly being updated with new features – with the beautiful addition for technical teams that they need not worry about deploying and managing updates themselves. BMIT Technologies have handled some of Malta’s largest Office 365 implementations, with responsibility to deploy, migrate and power-up thousands of users across different Office 365 plans. Microsoft’s step-up from Office 365 is Microsoft 365, which bundles Office 365, Windows 10 and mobility security features together, and all for a pay-per-use monthly fee.  BMIT have added Microsoft 365 to their portfolio, complete with a range of managed deployment options, to facilitate adoption.

The enabler for this full suite of IT services is a continuous investment in training and certifications.  BMIT Technologies’ prides Microsoft Gold Partner and HPE Gold Partner status for a number of competencies, as well as other industry-leading certifications from a number of other global players. This reflects itself in the capability of the company to understand requirements, propose solutions and eventually deploy and manage systems to the customer’s full satisfaction.

Following BMIT Technologies’ successful IPO earlier this year, and the eventual listing on the Malta Stock Exchange, the company is now aiming at extending further its full suite offering, as well embark on a growth journey, which will see it explore new technologies and new markets.

As you might already be aware, SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 reached the end of their support life-cycle last week, on the 9th of July 2019. This means that these services will no longer receive patches and security updates, rendering them susceptible to malicious attacks.

It’s the right time to reduce your infrastructure costs with free extended security updates, the Azure Hybrid Benefit, and optimized infrastructure by switching to Azure SQL Database. 

We're bringing Microsoft Azure closer to home, to facilitate your migration to current versions for improved security, performance and innovation. Get in touch with us today to get the ball rolling and ensure your business stays protected. We're ready to help.

BMIT Technologies have won the prestigious ‘IT Supplier of the Year’ award at the EGR B2B Awards at The Pavilion, Tower of London on Tuesday 25^th June 2019.

The EGR B2B Awards seek to reward and celebrate the very best service providers in the online gaming industry, recognising the achievements of suppliers from across all the major iGaming disciplines including betting and gaming software, networks, mobile, payments, recruitment, IT and infrastructure.

Jack Mizzi, Chief Marketing Officer who collected the award on behalf of BMIT Technologies along with Nick Tonna, Chief Commercial Officer, stated “This is a source of immense pride and great recognition for us, especially since these awards are most likely the most recognised and coveted in the online gaming industry.”

Nick Tonna continued to add “These past few years were transformative ones for us, as we sought to expand from simply being a data centre to becoming a fully-fledged IT Services provider. This award is testament to our work and a great vote of confidence.” 

BMIT Technologies have been at the forefront in their support to the iGaming industry with services ranging from Co-location to managed IT services and local network setups.

We recently unveiled BMIT Technologies’ new corporate brand identity, which groups together the publicly-listed company and our subsidiary companies under one brand.

At an event held exclusively for our staff and business partners at the BMIT Technologies corporate offices in SmartCity Malta, the fresh identity was revealed in line with our new brand values that focus on our philosophy of harnessing technology to power businesses.

In a short speech, CEO Christian Sammut outlined the company’s vision and how this will enable BMIT Technologies to continue offering innovative and business-relevant solutions to its local and international customer base.

The rest of the management team preceded the brand unveiling with an overview of our new company values, followed by refreshments and a goodie bag as a token of appreciation for all our team members.

We’re delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for 2 EGR B2B 2019 awards: Data Centre of the Year and IT Services Provider of the Year.

This announcement follows a breakthrough year for BMIT, which saw the company getting listed on the stock exchange, forming a strategic partnership with Microsoft, as well as announcing a new €10m data centre facility.

Plan smarter, collaborate better and ship faster with a set of modern dev services; all available on Microsoft's Azure platform. Working with Microsoft through our strategic partnership, it’s clear DevOps has become increasingly critical to a team’s success. Azure DevOps captures over 15 years of investment and research in providing tools to support software development teams.

The services span across the whole development lifecycle to enable developers to ship better quality software, faster. They represent the most complete offering in the public cloud.

Get the full suite of Microsoft Azure services from BMIT at better rates. No strings attached. Use code BMIT5 at checkout to benefit from a 5% discount off Microsoft retail prices.

In Verizon’s 2018 breach investigation report, over 65% of network intrusions were a result of hacking or social engineering attacks. So what can businesses do to protect against hackers’ attempts at accessing their data?

When it comes to best-practices for online security, two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are always brought to the fold. As time goes by, online service providers are increasingly recognising the importance of ensuring a higher level of security for their online accounts. 2FA and MFA add additional levels of user verification during the login process, making a hacker’s life much more complicated in order to successfully gain access.

With all this talk of 2FA and MFA, it’s crucial to understand the concept behind an authentication factor. By definition, an authentication factor is a category of methods used to verify a user’s identity and credentials when requesting system access. They’re there to make sure the user is who they say they are.

Since usernames and passwords fall under the same factor, they form a single-factor authentication (SFA) when combined. In general, authentication factors are usually split into three categories: knowledge, possession and inherence factors. There are additional categories, however most online accounts make use of these three:

• A knowledge authentication factor includes information only a user should know (i.e username, password)
• A possession authentication factor includes credentials retried from a user’s physical possession, such as a hardware device (i.e. security token, mobile authenticators etc.)
• An inherence authentication factor includes a user’s identifiable biometric characteristic (i.e. fingerprint, voice, iris scan)

Based on the categories described, single-factor authentication requires credentials from only one category. Meanwhile, two-factor authentication involves two, so for example a username + password and a security token. Finally, multi-factor authentication requires credentials from at least two or more categories, meaning another authentication factor such as fingerprint recognition could be added in addition to the 2FA.

For example, Microsoft’s Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) requires the use of more than one verification method and adds a second layer of security to user sign-ins and identity transactions. With MFA in place, hackers do not have access to the second-factor device to login. The end user experience can be improved by not prompting a second factor when they are on a trusted network or using a domain joined PC.

Just as user identity theft continually evolves through the latest types of attacks, MFA continuously improves user security and meets stronger security policies, which are required today. 

Two-factor authentication and multi-factor authentication definitely improve the level of security on all your online accounts. However, strong policies requiring complex passwords and changing them regularly should not be forgone when implementing 2FA or MFA.

At BMIT we can help in enabling multi-factor authentication, and a range of other security features, across your organisation. Talk to us.

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The financial services industry is undoubtedly going through a major shift, driven by the fintech wave of new products, operators and ways of doing business.  Accounting for shifts in technology, laws & regulations and global realities can be quite a daunting and time-intensive task.

Taking a step back and reflecting on your long-term challenges and opportunities can be worthwhile as you plan ahead. Your firm’s past successful tried-and-tested methods might not be compatible with your objectives for the future.

Cyberattacks against financial services operators and other sectors have grown in number, size, and sophistication. Criminals target the financial services industry because that’s where the money is, and cybercrime not only hasn’t changed this, but it has increased the efficiency and ultimately the consequences of such crimes. It is critical to balance openness with security, and as attacks continue to increase, the pressure to act mounts.

What does the road ahead look like? Social engineering continues to adapt and migrate more aggressively towards social media to phish users into downloading and running malware. While cybercrime is predominantly a networking problem, it also includes crime arising from internal sources such as insider trading, theft and cyber vandalism. An increased focus on internal risk analysis to protect against criminal behavior and compromised (likely unknowingly) workers is a must.

Recognizing that vulnerabilities do exist and will be exploited is the first step to improving the way systems are designed, teams trained, and risks managed. There are two kinds of financial services firms: those that have faced a cyberattack and those that will, and with fraud incidents, both online and offline, increasing by more than 130% in 2017, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly critical.

Join us and our guests on the 26^th of March for our free morning event, “Intelligent Security through Technology - The role of Cloud and AI within Financial Services”, ideal if you're a CIO, CISO, CTO, Head of Risk, Head of IT Security or Head of Audit within the Financial Services industry. We will zoom in on a number of security related topics and share with you how we think that a set of technologies, and especially cloud and AI solutions, can truly provide the right insights and tools to your organisation’s security and compliance requirements.

This article was based on research conducted by PwC. For additional insights you can read the full report here.