During an Extraordinary General Meeting held earlier today, BMIT Technologies plc shareholders approved a proposal which will see the technology company acquire a property in Qormi currently housing one of its data centres. The resolution was unanimously approved by shareholders and enables BMIT Technologies to sustain its ambitious growth plans.
BMIT Technologies plc Chief Executive Officer Ing. Christian Sammut, delivered a presentation, in which details and rationale for such acquisition were given. In comments following the approval of this resolution, Chairman of the Board, Mr Nikhil Patil said that “today’s approval by shareholders further strengthens our capability to continue growing our business by having the required capacity to continue serving our customers in their technology needs”.
The Board thanked all shareholders for their trust in the company.
It’s that time of the year when we go in full prep mode for the ICE expo in London. Anyone in iGaming considers this event as a must-visit, and as BMIT we’re really looking forward to another successful event. As usual the event will be held at the ExCel in London, from the 5th to 7th of February, 2019.
The expo is our first major event for the year and it allows us to highlight new additions to our product portfolio, in the context of an enlarged IT services offering. 2019 is no different, and we’re really excited to meet new and existing customers during these 3 days!
This year we also thought of giving back a token of appreciation, at least to one lucky person we meet at ICE. Anyone meeting with any one of my commercial team colleagues at ICE 2019 will enter into a draw to win a DJI Spark drone. In other words, it’s the perfect opportunity to up your business and photography game all in one go!
If you would like to meet us please use this form, or contact one of our reps.
Ħandaq Malta, 6th December 2016: The BMIT team today donated the sum of €3,100 to Puttinu Cares Foundation, having raised the money through various activities in the past months, including games tournaments, raffles and other donations from staff members and the company.
The sum was presented to Mr Andrew Decelis, a Puttinu Cares Foundation board member, at BMIT offices. Mr Decelis expressed his gratitude to the company and all employees, and explained that the money will go towards supporting Puttinu Cares’ ongoing initiative to purchase more apartments closer to Central London.
“We are proud to be supporting Puttinu Cares once again. In previous years we had supported organisations fundraising for the Puttinu Cares Foundation, but this year opted to contribute directly towards this cause,” said Christian Sammut, Chief Executive Officer at BMIT.
"BMIT employees have taken part in fundraising activities almost on a weekly basis, and by December we have proudly exceeded the target set at the beginning of the year," added Maria Zheng Borg, who organised and coordinated all activities related to the fundraising.
The Puttinu Cares Foundation offers accommodation for when families need to go abroad to pursue further treatment in the UK.
Maria Zheng Borg presenting the donation to Andrew Decelis from Puttinu Cares
BMIT Business Breakfast Key Takeaways
Session #1 – A regulatory perspective on business continuity Speaker: Dominic Fisher, Deloitte Malta
1. You cannot ignore business continuity issues from a regulatory point of view. Don’t be scared off by it – a lot of it is common sense!
2. An iterative business continuity process will improve resilience. This translates to a commercial advantage, especially during stressed times when competitors are likely to be stressed out too, especially if they didn’t prepare accordingly to tackle risk.
3. Rehearsing a disaster can be quite a daunting task for a business. Include documentation about actual events, think about unavoidable events like power outage, and do recovery wwwing based around that. Lower risk desk reviews or workshops are a good alternative. Any shortcomings should be identified, linked back to recovery plans, and used to improve your business continuity programme.
Session #2 – The importance of a trusted service provider
Speaker: Nick Tonna, BMIT
1. Very often we gripe about it, but we also need to understand that IT is a costly and complex endeavour for most businesses.
2. IT-as-a-service is all about enabling peace of mind. This involves ensuring the impact of unplanned events can be minimised, and the organisation continues to operate normally.
3. BMIT assists customers who have to deal with the regulatory aspects of IT risk management by abstracting certain complexities and offering a complete portfolio of IT-as-a-service.
Session #3 – Customer success story
Speaker: Ian Pellicano, APCO Ltd
1. Moving our operations to a data centre meant that we could handle our data more reliably and securely. If our data is compromised, card numbers and personal information could leak into the marketplace. It’s an issue of reputation, and making this move was an important decision.
2. The mix of devices available today has brought about a quantum leap in the way people purchase. Whatever the device, we’re geared to work across multiple platforms and offer solid cross-platform compatibility.
3. Our focus is squarely on growing our business and the delivery of the highest level of value to our customers.
“BMIT is the right partner for us, providing us with a reliable and secure solution. They continue to invest at the level our business needs so as to remain ahead!” – Ian Pellicano, APCO Ltd
Speaker Bios
Dominic Fisher is a senior manager within their Enterprise Risk Services division. In this role, he oversees numerous external audit, internal audit, risk and regulatory compliance assignments across the spectrum of Malta’s financial services sector. Dominic is a chartered accountant and has recently completed chartered internal auditor exams.
Nick Tonna is Chief Commercial Officer at BMIT, having joined the company in 2012 from Microsoft Malta where for the previous seven years he led the Enterprise & Partner Group segment and was responsible for managing and developing the relationships with Microsoft’s enterprise customers in Malta.
Ian Pellicano heads the payments services arm of APCO Ltd, the first company in Malta to move into the online payments market. System solutions designed and built at APCO include card management systems, card personalization systems, and APCO Pay, an e-commerce payment platform with a special emphasis on anti-fraud systems. The company is part of PTL International, a member of Hili Ventures.
BMIT, Malta’s largest data centre, cloud and managed services provider hosted a number of students to provide them with a practical perspective of running a data centre and a cloud services platform as part of a new study unit related to Cloud Computing launched by the University of Malta earlier this year.
During the visit the students were given a tour of the data centres and a brief session to help them better understand what it means, from an operational context, to provide Cloud Computing services given its increased relevance to several industries operating locally and internationally.
Nick Tonna, Chief Commercial Officer at BMIT praised the University for this initiative: “It was a pleasure for us to host students and staff from the Faculty of ICT of the University of Malta. Cloud Computing has become an accepted reality in the ICT field with an ever more growing number of businesses from a variety of industries starting to adopt it, and the Faculty of ICT should be lauded not only for introducing this study unit but also for providing students with the opportunity to obtain exposure to the industry. As the only local Cloud platform provider, BMIT offers Cloud-based services on its infrastructure which is entirely hosted in Malta and this provides several benefits to local customers.”
Dr. Peter A. Xuereb, Lecturer, and Ing. Etienne Depasquale, Research Officer, both with the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta, led the visit. Dr Xuereb expressed his gratitude towards BMIT for hosting the students: “In the last few years, we have seen Cloud Computing go from the usual initial hype to what is now a viable alternative for most businesses. In anticipation of this, the Faculty of ICT decided to develop a study unit on Cloud Computing – and whilst we make every effort to ensure that our classroom sessions balance the theoretical and conceptual with the practical, it is important that our students also step outside the academic environment to see what awaits them in the professional world, and how our lectures, exercises and class discussions translate into practice in that world. For this reason we are grateful to all those in the industry who open their doors to us, and thus help provide further insights into what lies ‘underneath the hood’, and how this is delivered in a professional context. Thank you BMIT!”
SmartCity Malta, 29th April 2015: BMIT announced today an investment of €3 million in a new data centre at SmartCity Malta. The investment will drastically increase Malta’s data centre capacity and consolidate further BMIT’s position as Malta’s largest data centre provider. This investment is one of a series which BMIT will be announcing over the next 12 months in relation to the expansion of its datacentre, cloud and internet connectivity capabilities.
During an on-site presentation, BMIT CEO Christian Sammut explained that the new data centre will have a capacity of 146 racks, all installed and immediately available, and therefore enabling a quick turnaround to customers across a wide range of industries including online gaming, financial institutions, IT companies as well as SMEs. It is designed and will be operated to standards ensuring high availability of mission-critical data and applications in a secure environment for customers’ servers and data.
Hon. Dr Chris Cardona, Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business was present for the announcement. Minister Cardona said that the announcement of the investment by BMIT is not only an important announcement for the company but also for the business sector. He explained that the services provided by BMIT are crucial for any business operating within our islands. Such services allow the government to further entice other companies to invest in Malta, while providing existing companies with state of the art services.
The data centre will be built by a team of Maltese and international companies, led by one of the leading provider of critical infrastructure for data centers, communication networks, healthcare, and industrial facilities worldwide.
As the e-gaming industry continues to evolve, operators are constantly seeking new ways of deriving value. With computing and compliance requirements becoming more complex, disentangling the business operation from the IT platform that supports it offers one such opportunity and allows operators to focus resources on where these are needed most: launching innovative solutions and acquiring more customers.
Changes in technology and the growth of a new breed of service providers has undoubtedly increased the potential for cost reduction through outsourcing and hence many operators are today increasingly considering partnering with hosting service providers.
It has become increasingly common for operators to look beyond pure colocation providers and rather seek a strategic partner that can work hand-in-hand to design, implement and possibly also manage their online infrastructures in line with technical, regulatory and financial requirements. This will also give the operator the agility to respond to changes in customer demand and reduce operational risks.
When looking at hosting service providers, it is vital for operators to choose a focused and expert IT partner that can develop a long term relationship. Such choice is usually a composite of several requirements, with the choice of location being the first of such requirements, with location being first.
1. Location
Malta is synonymous with, and a natural home for online gaming. Over the years the country has developed a gaming ecosystem, which provides for a full spectrum of services aimed at assisting the industry. The strong regulatory frame work in place is a fundamental feature in all this, but the industry has now developed to cater for the full suite of requirements.
2. Solid Infrastructure
Proven and constantly upgraded infrastructure as well as continuous investment in core and ancillary technologies, are a corner store for any reputable data centre. This comprise not just the data centre facilities, but also the ability to offer redundancy across different data centres, the expertise to manage complex requirements in one or several locations as well the quality of the network over which such services are provided.
BMIT obviously ticks all these criteria, and backed by its ISO 27001 and PCI DSS certifications of its data centres, has over recent years continued to make substantial investments in providing top-end hosting services to its wide range of customers.
3. Full suite of IT services
Managing IT effectively has become one of the key skills to master in doing business, allowing gaming operators to capitalise on the enormous amount of data that runs through their systems and deliver a more timely and personalised service to their customers.
While the rapid pace of innovation in the technology available to the gaming industry is exciting proof of its vitality and relevance to the digital economy, the daunting task of having to handle it all by yourself within the organisation is one every owner of a thriving gaming company can relate to.
The truth of the matter is: if you don’t pay enough attention to your IT department instead of running it, IT will run you.
Sinking enormous amounts of capital in setting up, maintaining and periodically upgrading in-house IT infrastructure, as well as the attendant costs of hiring and training personnel, can set back a young and growing gaming company years in terms of achieving profitability, customer reach and the business stature you aspire to within the industry, while competitors soar ahead.
The choice of a hosting provider that can also offer management of IT infrastructure and services is an additional benefit that no operator should exclude as part of choice evaluation.
4. Cloud Services for Gaming operators
Cloud services are now part of the very fabric of modern business and hosting providers play a key role in ensuring that the right offering is in place for gaming operators.
With an increasing number of gaming companies adopting cloud solutions into their enterprise, the market has now matured to a point where cloud services are being relied upon for mission critical activities and to provider key services to customers.
In this context, Malta has chosen to tackle the demand for more efficient and secure cloud services. In fact, the recently re-branded Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has just carried out a consultation with respect to its proposed guidelines for cloud computing solutions adoption by remote gaming operators, with the goal of gathering insights and feedback from stakeholders and industry experts.
This exercise will ultimately allow the MGA to set out clear guidelines for cloud services providers in order to safeguard Malta’s sterling reputation in the gaming industry and ensure adequate levels of player protection from online risks
BMIT has invested in a range of cloud services and solutions comprising in public and private cloud architectures, as well as hybrid systems that combine the benefits and functionality of both. BMIT also offers cloud backup, which offers an end-to-end solution for all backup issues, irrespective of the location of the user. Clients of BMIT’s cloud systems have the flexibility of choosing to pay only for the resources they use or opt for a fixed monthly investment plan.
Contact BMIT today for a tailored solution for you and your business.
We're glad to announce that BMIT is once again sponsoring local triathlete and local athlete Michelle Vella Wood.
BMIT’s help will assist Michelle in her preparation to tackle the Ironman races in pro category in 2015. She will be taking part in the Ironman 70.3 challenges in Luxembourg and Poland as well as the full Ironman taking place in France.
The Ironman triathlon is considered to be the most challenging one-day sporting event in the world, with a cut-off time of 17 hours to complete the race.
We want to congratulate Michelle for her recent achievements as she:
Placed 3rd in the Scicli Gran Fondo 126km, a cycling race in Sicily 2015
Secured 1st place on the podium at the recent Żebbuġ Road Race 2015
Just last Thursday, she also placed 3rd overall and 1st Maltese in the opening stage of this year's Tour ta' Malta 2015.
We wish Michelle the best of luck in her training!!
BMIT website is now available in Italian
BMIT has just launched the first foreign language version of its website. Aimed at the closest international market to us, bmit.it will be promoting our data, colocation, managed and cloud provider services to operators based in Italy.
If you know of any companies based in Italy who would be interested in partnering with us to start reselling our range of data centre, cloud and managed services, talk to us!
Business Awards Europe have announced the The Business of the year Ruban d’Honneur award to local data centre and cloud services provider BMIT as part of the 2014 / 15 European Business Awards dedicated to European companies with turnover up to €25m.
BMIT is the only Maltese company across all categories to receive this award and is accompanied by 9 other European businesses in the respective category. All recipients of the Ruban d’Honneur were chosen from 709 National Champions by a panel of judges made up of European business and political leaders, academics and entrepreneurs. Now in its 8th year, The European Business Awards has engaged with over 24,000 businesses from 33 European countries this year, a further proof of the standing and prestige this awards carry.
Christian Sammut, CEO of BMIT, said that this award recognises BMIT as a leader is its field.
“These awards are also a recognition to the tremendous effort my team at BMIT places in delivering the best of services to our clients. This is the main reason why our data centres and services are trusted by an ever-increasing number of foreign and local clients. I especially thank all our clients, both established and start ups, for their confidence in BMIT. Our clients are our business partners, and this is the reason for our consistent growth and success in our area of business”
Maria Zheng Borg presenting the donation to Andrew Decelis from Puttinu Cares