Social Media analytics application will be the first to be launched on platform
Having the right tools at hand to be able to effectively analyse mountains of data and information is critical for businesses to take the right decisions at the right time. This is where business discovery and business intelligence (BI) technologies and applications become key components in business decision making processes.
Such applications will become more accessible to local organisations following the announcement by BMIT Ltd and iMovo Ltd, of the launch of a cloud-based On Demand Business Intelligence platform based on the award winning QlikView business discovery platform. The cloud based platform will enable the deployment of a range of Business Intelligence applications.
The first such application is Socionomix, an innovative social analytics tool aimed at marketing and online professionals. Socionomix allows marketers to analyse and acquire unique insights into how their organisation’s social media presences and applications are driving customer engagement and contrasting this with the behaviour of their competitors’ own social media properties. Socionomix allows marketers to understand the demographics of their customers, the impact of marketing campaigns, measuring customer sentiment towards one’s brand as well as gauging customer behavioural patterns. Such application provides a powerful tool for any organisation willing to use social media such as Facebook as an integral part of its marketing and general marketing investment decision making process.
“The launch of our Cloud On Demand Business Intelligence platform is another step in BMIT’s objective to allow businesses to harness the power of cloud services for their business. With no major upfront investments, an organisation can start benefiting from business discovery and business intelligence applications on a pay-per-use model, with easy access across platforms. This platform and the associated BI services, continues to extend our cloud services portfolio, which now includes cloud computing, communication and collaboration services, backup and storage, hosting, and now the ability to provide Business Intelligence applications,” said Christian Sammut, CEO of BMIT Limited.
“Our partnership with BMIT will allow both companies to extend their reach and explore new market and business opportunities. Socionomix is the first of a family of social analytics applications we intend to roll-out via BMIT’s On Demand Business Intelligence platform. This partnership provides our customers with a unique opportunity to also leverage a cloud based platform for their analytical requirements in a secure and practical manner with very attractive financial terms. We look forward to working with BMIT to launch more new and exciting applications,” commented Pierre Mallia, Managing Director at iMovo Limited.
As part of this partnership agreement, iMovo will be responsible for application development and market initiatives, with BMIT providing the required technical set-up and related support.
One of the most famous stories about backups and their importance revolves around Pixar. The animated movie behemoth inadvertently almost deleted their Toy Story 2 movie, due to careless key strokes and a bad backup. Luckily for them an employee had a copy of her own from which they could restore what was lost, but you might not always be so lucky.
Here are a few things which will demonstrate why your backup provider matters (and just how vital the service they offer is).
Disaster Recovery.
Every business should have some sort of disaster recovery plan and a reputable cloud storage provider will help you to create a disaster recovery plan which is tailored to your business’ needs or even create the disaster recovery plan for you themselves. Do not underestimate the value of this plan; you can only see how valuable it truly is when a mishap does strike.
Your own Backup and Recovery Solution.
No business is exactly like any other business, so the backup and recovery plan for your business should be unique to your requirements. Ensure that your backup and recovery plan recovers all mission-critical data and applications first so as to reduce any downtime and maintain a high productivity (Learn more about the data that you should back-up).
Monitor Backups.
There are tons of horror stories about data that disappeared because no one checked to make sure the data was backing up properly. Ensure that you check that you can effectively restore the data that has been backed up and that any encryption keys are saved in a secure place.
Support.
It’s always nice to know that whenever you have a question or want to make changes to your backup and recovery service, you can get in touch with someone who is not only knowledgeable about the services in general but also about your company’s particular needs.
Time is Money.
How long it will take your backup and recovery provider to recover lost data? Of course, it will be much less than if you had to try do so yourself, but you will want to know what procedures the provider will follow should disaster strike. Given their experience in this field, reputable backup companies can provide fairly accurate estimates.
Backups usually only matter when you lose something, and then you panic trying to figure out what was actually lost and where it can be retrieved from. Leaving this huge headache to a good backup provider is the sensible choice to make! Contact us to see how we can help.
Data is absolutely essential and central to many businesses. A company needs its data in order to run operations, record transactions and measure progress. So what data should you back up, and why?
The basic rule to follow in business data protection is this; “Will losing the data interfere with doing business?” If yes, back it up. Software programs can be reinstalled if needed, but recovering the details of transactions or business correspondence is impossible if those files are lost or damaged beyond repair. Here are the sensible things you should think of when thinking backups.
Back up offsite
Does your business have a set of fire-proof, indestructible safes? No? Then don’t even think about making your backups onsite. Investment in a tape drive or external hard drives and meticulously adhering to a regular data backup schedule will be worthless if all your data backup copies are in one location and that place is struck by disaster. You simply must store copies of your backups off-site if your business data is to be truly secure.
Archive Critical Data
Archiving business data is more than just a matter of good housekeeping; it could be a matter of your business's survival. You should start by identifying the critical data that needs to be archived and then using a data archiving method on a regular schedule.
What exactly should be archived in your data backup? Executables, such as software programs, don’t need to be, because you don’t create new versions of executable programs.
However, all the files that you’ve created and/or modified using the executables should be regularly backed up. These are your documents, not your applications. For many businesses, this will include everything from accounting files, email, contact databases and much more.
Be redundant
Backups is one of the areas where being redundant should be encouraged. Use more than one method of protecting and backing up your critical data.
This could simply mean burning a CD or DVD with a copy of essential files, but in truth, when talking business data backups, this sort of thing is best left to the professionals, although you should feel to make your own backups above and beyond what the service provider offers. Do this in addition to whatever else you choose and you can point with pride to your "redundant" backup system.
Expect the worst
As the Scouts say, you need to be prepared, which is the whole point of taking backups in the first place. No one is immune to data loss. Even Pixar once lost all the files to their Toy Story 2 movie, and it was only saved because a project leader had just given birth and was working from home. Luckily she had a recent archived version saved on her home system which allowed the Pixar team to continue where they left off from, rather than starting from the top.
Don’t let you data backups fall to chance; speak to BMIT today and we’ll set your mind at rest.
BMIT Ltd, Malta’s leading data centre, cloud and managed services provider announced the launch of a suite of cloud services aimed at providing a one-stop, no-investment, IT solution for work places. Called BMIT Cloud Workplace, the suite currently includes hosted Microsoft Exchange, hosted Microsoft Sharepoint and BMIT’s own Cloud Backup services. Other services will be shortly added, to cover the whole communication and collaboration requirements of SMEs and corporates.
“Through BMIT Cloud Workplace we want to offer customers the possibility of managing their collaboration and communication requirements in an easy and cost-effective manner. This first set of services will provide customers access to enterprise-class and market leading solutions without the need for major upfront investments in hardware, software licensing or lengthy implementation services costs whilst providing the flexibility to pay only for the services that are used,” said Nick Tonna, CCO at BMIT.
“There are a number of other benefits and advantages in opting for such services like obtaining faster access to lawww innovation, deploying services almost instantaneously and relying on a trusted and expert provider to manage the underlying technology. Additionally, because we are a local Cloud provider, BMIT offers local customers the peace of mind over international service providers because customers know where their data resides and have direct access to our people.”
BMIT’s Cloud Workplace services allow efficient access to email, calendars, contacts and tasks from any computer, web, tablet or mobile phone as well as a personalised platform where to store and share documents. Additionally, through BMIT’s own integration solution, such services can be seamlessly integrated with a customer’s Active Directory if this is already in use at customer premises. The Cloud Backup service allows a secure, encrypted and highly affordable backup solution to laptops, desktops and servers, in an unobtrusive manner to customer. Service also allows for the backup of databases when they are in use.
BMIT Cloud Workplace guarantees availability. Employees get secure anywhere, anytime access to documents, e-mail, task lists and contacts from office PCs, laptops, home computers and any internet enabled device. The high costs associated with setting up, running and maintaining such a system are avoided since there is no need for investment in hardware, software, implementation services, backups and security and on-going running costs such as power and cooling. Instead, BMIT provides this service on a predictable monthly cost model and the move to any of such Cloud services can take as little as 24 hours.
BMIT has, over these last years, established itself as a leading provider of data centre, cloud and managed services. With a customer base spread all over Europe and ranging from retail to financial to gaming customers, BMIT offers an extensive suite of services aimed at both SMEs and corporates.
For a growing number of companies, the question is no longer whether online backups are the right choice, but rather which online backup provider they should trust to be responsible for their critical business data.
Data is the lifeblood of many businesses. A company needs it to run operations, record transactions and measure progress. Without timely access to data, a business might never recover. Local backup is a step in the right direction, but it only gives a limited assurance.
These are 5 reasons why your backups should be taken online with BMIT.
1) Best Protection
When your data is stored or backed up online, it is kept safe both from site specific problems like power outages, fire, theft or leaky plumbing, as well as from regional catastrophes like earthquakes and hurricanes. Any of these events could wipe out your original data and your local backup copy. When it comes to security, online backups are generally more secure than in-house backup solutions because computers and data are affected by natural disaster, power failures or surges, viruses, theft or human error and your in-house backup will suffer the same fate. Furthermore, tape backups are generally left unencrypted and therefore not very secure. Almost anyone could read them and gain access to your clients, sales, prospects, notes, billing records, payroll and whatever else you back up.
2) It makes sense
Many companies simply don’t have the necessary resources in place to efficiently handle data backups and recovery. A myriad of security threats come from within organisations and stories of disgruntled or dishonest employees deleting or damaging critical business data are not unheard of. The risks and costs to you also escalate when taking care of backups internally. A data backup provider, however, is in the business of providing failsafe data backups and their resources in this regard are almost limitless compared to an average company’s, as the service is, after all, the company’s life blood.
3) Cost
Online backups offer a stronger return on investment partly because they eliminate the cost of physically having to backup data internally, but also because files can be restored quickly 24/7—often within minutes—thus keeping productivity high.
Additionally, with reputable online backup providers, there are no set up fees, installation costs or any equipment to purchase. Further still, since you’ll be using the provider’s servers, more information can be stored at a lower cost.
4) It’s Automatic
Switching to online data backup means never having to say, “I forgot.” The days when your IT staff had to worry about shuttling tapes is over, and they can concentrate on more important and urgent matter. BMIT’s cloud backup services work automatically and in the background to sync your data. Some online data backup services are always backing up your data in response to changes the services detect in your data. Yet others will work off a backup schedule that your organization controls.
5) Support
Many companies overlook this factor, but they shouldn’t because in case you do need to peruse your online backup, support will be the first point of contact. Good online backup providers offer dedicated recovery specialists and round-the-clock support. BMIT’s experts have a lot more data recovery experience than your company’s IT staff and are trained and experienced in recovering data more quickly. Of course since we pride ourselves on being top of the field, here at BMIT we offer setup, monitoring, wwwing and alerting services so that you can focus on more critical business operations with full peace of mind, all while saving on backup costs.
BMIT’s cloud backup solution is easy to manage and supports various operating systems. It offers you the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that your data is safely stored at our leading Data Centre at all times.
Need more information about our Cloud Backup? Contact us for a FREE consultation now.
Microsoft Malta today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GO and BMIT which effectively makes the two companies partners of the Microsoft Innovation Center.
The agreement was signed between Adrianna Zammit, Country Manager at Microsoft Malta, Yiannos Michaelides, Chief Executive Officer at GO and Christian Sammut, Chief Executive Officer of BMIT.
Microsoft Innovation Centers are state-of-the-art technology facilities that foster active collaboration on innovative research, technology and software solutions, involving a combination of government, academia and industry participants. To date, only around 110 MICs exist in over 40 countries worldwide which to date have reached 1.1 million students and ICT professionals in the past few years.
“The Microsoft Innovation Center is a tangible project, a physical collaboration between Microsoft and the ICT Community in Malta and its success depends on the collaboration and initiative of all players in the sector,” explains Adrianna Zammit during the signing of the memorandum. “In Malta, The MIC – open to students, professional software developers, IT professionals, entrepreneurs and academic researchers – will be an opportunity for them to come together, share ideas and projects and turn them into innovative realities. Therefore, we are proud to have GO and BMIT as our two partners endorsing the MIC as this reflects the high professional services that this project will be delivering to all those utilizing our MIC,” added Ms Zammit.
As the primary resource responsible for all phases of the MIC project, Microsoft Malta is responsible for the initial setup, management and supervision of the components, co-funding, and provision of human and educational resources, training assistance, business development, and other support.
GO CEO Yiannos Michaelides said “we are proud that GO is establishing itself as the communications partner of the Microsoft Innovation Center in Malta and will work towards achieving the program objectives and building a sustainable entity with visible impact on the Maltese technology sector. GO’s role will be to supply the data infrastructure needed for the Innovation Center including on-premises network active equipment, high speed Internet connection over fibre, voice connectivity and providing start-ups with competitive communications packages.”
“Becoming the official hosting and cloud services provider of the Microsoft Innovation Center in Malta confirms BMIT’s role as Malta’s leading data centre and cloud services company and we are delighted to have such an active role in the formation of this new exciting project,” said Christian Sammut, CEO of BMIT. “In line with our commitment to contribute towards the successful creation and implementation of the MIC, BMIT’s role will be to engage jointly with the MIC stakeholders to grow the technical and non-technical Cloud Computing competence in the local market. BMIT already supports a number of start-ups and with this recent collaboration, we will also be providing Cloud Services offerings at advantageous rates for target groups engaged at the MIC” noted Mr Sammut.
Elaborating on the MIC’s operations, Edward Portelli, MIC Business Development Manager said “Microsoft Innovation Centers are jointly operated by Microsoft and its partners. While each Center tunes its programs to the specific local needs of the country where it operates, all MICs services that seek to accelerate technology advances and stimulate local software economies through skills and professional training, industry partnerships and innovation.”
“As such, the Microsoft Innovation Center in Malta will focus on three main pillars namely programs that focus on developing the latest technical and business skills, the promotion of entrepreneurship by providing mentorship and logistical support to startups and innovative projects as well as promoting local innovation both locally and overseas” concluded Mr Portelli.
Email has become an absolutely mission critical part of your IT infrastructure. Let’s be honest, people panic when they’re cut off from their email, and with good reason; most of our communication happens by email. You can’t afford the risk of not getting emails from your customers or suppliers. What you need is a reliable email system that runs properly, 24×7 and which can connect your email, contacts and calendar to any mobile device. Accessing your email via internet browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome is also a necessity, while security and reliability are obviously paramount. To top it off, you need reliable support that answer queries quickly and fix any problems. Sound far-fetched? With BMIT and Microsoft Exchange it’s not.
Microsoft Exchange hosting was built to make the world a smaller place by letting your staff stay organised and in touch, wherever they are. There are countless tangible benefits to your business by using Microsoft Exchange.
Security is always an issue for companies, so choosing a proven and reliable Microsoft Exchange hosting provider is critical to your data being kept secure not only in transit but also when being stored in the cloud. Paying for a cheap hosted Exchange service could cost you dear if any important information is compromised in transit or stored at an insecure data centre or even worse, is in the hands of inexperienced staff.
Another major benefit of Exchange hosting is the ease of access it brings about. With Exchange you’re able to access your information on a wide number of platforms from almost any device, anywhere in the world, securely.
A third benefit is availability. Keeping your mail data at your offices might sound a natural thing to do until disaster strikes - power failures or surges, natural disasters or unauthorized access are just some of the many issues that can cause non availability of service or data for a long period, or potentially a permanent loss. By hosting your mail at a certified and reputable data centre you can avoid all this risk since such data centres go to great lengths to ensure the highest level of security and availability of services hosted at them.
Exchange also enhances the collaboration between employees. People working on the same project in different locations can rapidly and easily see updates made to calendars and schedules, thus leaving nobody guessing as to what developments have been made.
Increased productivity achieved by letting people communicate online from different locations is yet another advantage brought on with Exchange. Information can be shared much more quickly and in collaboration with others, anywhere they are in the world.
However, choosing the right Exchange hosting provider for you and your business needs is critical. Simply going for the cheapest option will cause all sorts of problems in future, especially in terms of security, reliability and lack of support at that important time of crisis which you never quite know when will hit.
Contact us to see how your business too can be improved with our Hosted Exchange.
Never be fooled into thinking that Microsoft Exchange is just an email server and nothing else.
Although it does indeed handle and store your company’s email, it also serves calendars, address books and (together with SharePoint) files centrally, thus ensuring that they are available 24x7 and can be shared within your team. It is for this reason that Exchange is the messaging system of choice for most Fortune 500 corporations.
Of course, companies running Exchange as their email server will typically use Microsoft Outlook as their email ‘client’ but not just. Hosted Exchange combined with Outlook also delivers other important business benefits. So what else is Outlook?
Outlook is a digital organizer, able to manage contact information of employees and customers and access it anytime. Within the email interface you can access the company directory and your individual contacts, view and update your calendar, manage tasks and even create calendar entries from email invites, create group email messages from your contacts list and automatically turn an email to an item on your task list. Features such as Scheduling Assistant, resource sharing and social network integration will be of assistance to further streamline common business activities.
Outlook gives you access, anywhere. In today’s business world, your level of responsiveness is critical. Exchange gives you instant access anywhere so that when an email is sent to you, it’s immediately pushed to your desktop, laptop, tablet or other mobile phone. Exchange allows users to securely access email remotely, both via a Web browser or a mobile device like a BlackBerry or iPhone.
As to admins, Hosted Exchange gives them a highly intuitive management interface in which many commonplace tasks are simplified to the point of ease. Adding multiple Hosted Exchange users can be started and finished in just minutes. Most permissions, security, storage and mobile access tasks are point-and-click jobs in the control panel instead of nightmarish troubleshooting directories. This is even more simplified through solutions such as BMIT’s Cloud platform which provides for service management through its own service portal and thus simplifies management considerably.
Exchange is a far cry from basic POP3 or IMAP4 email and is poised to make your team much more productive by providing a constant access to email, calendars and contacts, as well as important files and information. The broader, richer collaborative tools that Microsoft Exchange Server has made possible make it the most powerful messaging and collaboration platform available for businesses today. Its features for email, contact management, calendaring, mobile access to messages, and much more are quite simply unparalleled.
Finally, through ancillary features such as active directory synchronization offered by providers such as BMIT, you would be able to maintain a single set of login usnername and password (single sign on) for your Windows, domain, mail and other applications using Microsoft’s Active Directory functionality.
With swathes of new technology and regulation bombarding the egaming industry, Jack Mizzi of BMIT discusses what needs to be done for data centres and IT support to keep up.
From our experience, a data centre’s success and longevity emanates from its ability to keep pace and align itself with its clients’ business and IT strategies as well as their evolving regulatory environment. This has been the difference between the data centre being a burden to keep up with or a catalyst to empower the ever changing business requirements. This does not mean throwing more money into the data centre with greater frequency, but rather approaching client partnerships in new informed ways and making intelligent decisions to leverage business growth and diversification – becoming the partner of choice for egaming operators.
With the progressive opening, country by country, of the European egaming market, online gaming operators in Europe face a wide array of opportunities - and challenges. Amongst these is the myriad of technical regulatory requirements that concern their operating and gaming systems, and these often differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Such requirements often include specifications concerning physical infrastructure, its location, records/archiving, connectivity and access to the regulator, amongst the most common. Apart from the diversity, an egaming operator needs to look for the most cost-efficient, timely and open method of compliance.
To complicate matters further, the regulatory landscape in Europe is still in a state of flux. Over the past two to three years 15 European countries have made changes to or introduced their new online gambling regulatory frameworks, and at least eight more are in the process of reviewing how to regulate their online markets. While the number of countries beginning or continuing to regulate may have many within the egaming industry excited about the possibilities of newly regulated and large, economically developed markets filled with potential players, there are some very complex matters that need to be addressed along the lines of regulation. Following the green paper issued by the European Commission (DG internal market and services) in 2011, it is also expected that a communication will be issued in autumn of 2012. Whether this will seek to harmonise any feature/s of online gaming regulation in Europe remains to be seen.
One issue that the European Commission has been very clear upon is that an operator seeking a licence in one jurisdiction need not also move his servers in the same territory. Legislators and regulators argue that they would need physical access to the system in order to ensure customer protection and prevent fraud and crime. But local servers add very little to the security of the customer and the regulator’s access to information can be ensured in other ways than by duplication of hardware and local IT architecture.
For example in Italy, foreign based AAMS licencees are allowed to keep their gaming servers abroad provided they are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) space and a full, real time connection with the AAMS central control system is in place. The central control system is run by AAMS via its technological partner SOGEI allowing each bet/wager placed by an Italian customer to be recorded, monitored, tracked, validated and taxed in real time. Similarly, online gaming operators licensed in France are not required to have their main servers in France but need to have their .fr servers (‘frontal operateur’) in France and install technology to allow player data and all transactions involving French customers to be audited. This information must be kept in a 'vault' connected in real time to ARJEL. Other jurisdictions took less or more onerous approaches with regard to the physical infrastructure. For example, Poland and Greece both opted for having real time data and records kept in their territory with the possibility of access to the regulatory body.
Within this operating environment the data centre service provider has to take a very holistic approach in order to meet the demands of an operator that is licensed in multiple jurisdictions. Adopting the right technical set-up is one such aspect, which involves the service provider and the operator seeking to determine the optimal deployment which maximises the benefits across countries. As an operator, a key aspect to look for at such stage would be the experience which the service provider has in the gaming market – in other words not any data centre can provide the right gaming-specific technical solution. Typically, an experienced service provider such as BMIT, would advise a solution which spans traditional data centre services such as co-location and connectivity and also factors in the right cloud infrastructure and applications whenever these are permitted and allowed. Such a ‘hybrid’ approach not only optimises the investment involved but also adapts to the different market requirements and conditions. Cloud services are becoming a critical element of most technical solutions, and sourcing them directly from providers, rather than brokers, can ‘facilitate life’ considerably from a business and technical perspective of the gaming operator.
A second aspect for the gaming operator to consider is the direct input which the data centre service provider can provide in the operational and routine tasks, as well as any set-up changes or enhancements. Typically the chosen service provider should be able to provide 24x7 support using a varied and experienced technical work-force. The provision of services on a “managed” basis, address, in most instances, the technical requirements of the gaming operator in a cost-effective and efficient manner: such as knowing what services to tap into at pre-defined rates.
In some cases, people will view a data centre as simply a hardwire site where an operator can house the buzzing, bleeping back office of their IT setup. But as we have seen, it is so much more than that. Like any element of a business, especially one involved in such a dynamic and competitive industry as egaming, the data centre side of operations needs to be able to move and evolve quickly with the operator’s setup. Not only has changing technology acted as a catalyst for greater innovation, but regulation has also thrown up some very significant hurdles. That is why it is imperative for an egaming operator to outsource such duties to an experienced data centre services provider, so they can focus on the actual day-to-day activities of running a successful egaming operation.
Malta is regarded by many as the home of iGaming and for the fourth year running MiGS (Malta iGaming Seminar) is being organized by BMIT together with Greentube, Remax and Capstone. It will be held on the 11th and 12th of September at the Malta Hilton Resort in St. Julians. The organisers are keen to ensure that delegates benefit from a packed programme in a stunning location.
MiGS|12 has secured the services of more than 20 prominent speakers representing every facet of the international iGaming industry whilst seminar content has been driven by requests from delegates and will be wide reaching and topical. Subjects to be covered include, amongst others:
Designed also to be a networking centric event, this year’s MiGS includes several interaction opportunites and fun activies, namely a cocktail reception, a poker tournament, as well as a pool party with free flowing champagne and open bar to close down the event. Among the gifts to be won are a snazzy new Huawei Ascend P1S smart phone from Intercomp and a weekend break at the Hilton Malta.
