Choosing your data centre service provider is an exciting and informative process, however, if you don’t know what you should be looking for, this can turn into an arduous and stressful process. Just like buying a car or a computer, you need to think of your requirements foremost, and crosscheck these with what the data centre provider offers.

With data centres (as with real estate), one of the most important things is location, location, location. Choose an easily accessible location which is serviced by a reliable support technical team. Furthermore, be sure to avoid unstable locations, both in terms of natural disasters but also in terms of war and conflict. As cheap and inviting certain locations may seem, your data is worth nothing if it’s in a country locked in civil war, for example. Ensuring that the chosen location is a well connected and stable country will help in reducing or preventing outages and minimizing downtime.

The physical security at a data center plays a huge role in the security of your data, as well as making sure you sleep at night. Consider the following when it comes to security in your quest for the perfect data center. Does the data center have security cameras, how many and where are they placed? How is the video data recorded and how long is it kept? Does everyone who goes into and out of the data center sign in and sign out? Is the data center staffed 24 hours a day?  Who has access to logs and videos and what is the procedure to get them? Is the data center insured against loss due to theft or vandalism or must you carry your own?

You should also be wise enough to enquire about the power infrastructure and HVAC (heating, ventilating and air-conditioning) system the data centre has, and whether it is capable of keep all the equipment running in a cool environment at maximum load on the hotwww day. Additionally, asking about how the data centre provider monitors temperatures goes a long way to knowing their state of readiness. One must keep in mind that if the HVAC stops working the servers will auto-power off in a matter of minutes.

Just because a data center has all the lawww technology does not mean that they do business in a way you’d care to join, so also ensure to research the company and their high profile clients, and ensure that no major problems have ever been reported.

BMIT’s data centres in Malta are housed within two state-of-the-art facilities and each area within the centre is manned 24x7, protected by an intrusion alarm system, and is constantly monitored by a CCTV system. Malta is a stable, highly performing EU member and a hub of commercial services. It is thus that we find ourselves uniquely positioned to provide a diverse and dynamic range of colocation, managed and cloud services to many customers all around the world.

Think of a computer. At what point does a computer stop being worthwhile to repair? Is it after 2 generations of superior computers have been released? Or perhaps after the 3rd time the motherboard needs to be changed? There is a point of diminishing returns with almost everything, and enterprise level IT is no different. Is it time for your business to start reconsidering your data centre strategy and think about getting out of the data centre business altogether?

A business’ data centre has always been of central importance to the enterprise but given the huge business potential of the internet among other factors, it has become even more so. A large number of businesses have added space, power, cooling, servers, storage, virtualisation, and more, over the space of a few years and at vast expense. However, in essence, we could say that all they’ve done is fix their data centre, rather than replace it with something much better.

The more practical and money saving alternative to the never-ending rat race of data centre upgrades is to buy what you need from a service provider, just as you do with water and electricity. Imagine if every company built their own networks, buried their own cables or fibre and set up their own networking equipment. An approach like that would have greatly slowed business growth and a great many companies would still be running on 14.4 modems today while any companies brave enough to make technology upgrades would still be struggling to justify the exorbitant costs incurred. Clearly this approach is not the best. 

Of course you have to know what your requirements are, and those requirements will reflect which provider is the best fit for you, your business and also importantly, your budget.

Businesses and enterprises would do well to look for a service provider that can offer a combination of Cloud, Committed, and Dedicated resources; storage facilities that grow as your needs do (i.e. scalable) and application platforms. The chosen service provider should be one that continually advances technology and allows their clients to take advantage of these investments.

Another factor to keep in mind is that of unforeseen circumstances. Disaster recovery is a collection of technologies which ensure that your business’ data is prepared in the case of a disaster. Certainly a well-reputed cloud provider such as BMIT has much more comprehensive and watertight disaster recovery strategies than most businesses can, primarily because we can afford to do so across hundreds of clients, thus reducing the cost per client to a fraction of what a single business would have to pay, but also because we live and die by our reputation.

A business can save huge amounts of money by outsourcing its data centre requirements. Premium service provides will offer 24x7x365 availability, maintenance, support, upgrades and much less hassle, for one low, all-inclusive price.

As a business which provides services to hundreds of global organizations, we know and understand that not only must BMIT provide 24/7 IT, but also enterprise-strength IT support and disaster recovery on a round-the-clock basis.

Ensure full peace of mind. Contact BMIT now.

Malta’s regulatory regime governing remote gaming, in all its forms, has long been established now and where other European jurisdictions are either just about setting a governing environment or seeking to close a long stretching lag between the public control of the sector the industry dynamics,  Malta has remained at the forefront in both governance of gaming and in attractiveness for the hundreds of operators that chose to locate their gaming operations in Malta.  It is no surprise that Malta is still the most favoured jurisdiction by operators that want to set their operations in Europe.

Malta’s infrastructure has leapt ahead in support of the gaming and other ICT intensive industries such as financial services and other forms of e-commerce. One area in which there has been very significant investment and has been a show case of Malta’s best is its data storage and transmission infrastructure. Over the last decade Malta has invested heavily on its ICT infrastructure, both in quality and in quantity in order to sustain and continue to foster and support growth in dependent industries such as remote gaming sector.

A major part of this investment has been directed towards expanding and improving the local connectivity.  Currently, Malta has four diverse and independent submarine fibre cables linking it to various locations in Sicily thus ensuring both connectivity availability and optimisation in distribution of traffic. These connect to different IP carriers, which enable the client to choose the best for his business needs. Furthermore these carriers are configured with automatic failover though BGP, thus enabling connectivity to automatically recover in less than 2 minutes should there be an outage. Apart from its resilience and redundancy features, another essential feature which was vastly improved upon is latency which resulted in enhanced and continuous stability, negligible packet loss and flexibility. The Maltese ICT sector and the service providers are thus in a very favourable position to continue to service both the Mediterranean and the European markets, irrespective of the jurisdiction or jurisdictions where the customers are located.

BMIT, now a fully owned subsidiary of GO plc, has lead the way in more than one front in the ICT development in Malta supporting the remote gaming industry. It has configured its unique investments in state-of-the-art, dedicated locations, multi-modal/regional connectivity, infrastructure and services to meet and exceed the gaming industry’s growing needs.  Its unrivalled capabilities have rendered it the obvious partner of choice both in Malta and the region for gaming operators whether active in the business to business or business to customer sectors; or both.

BMIT’s data centre facilities are connected to pan-European carrier-grade networks, ensuring 24 hours a day, 365 days a year support and monitoring systems, network and infrastructure, secured to meet European standards and their services are customised and client specific to connect and meet regulatory requirements of Malta or any other jurisdiction/s in which the operator is delivering its services.

BMIT recognises that the data centres and related support services still represent one of the most significant costs for any remote gaming operator and the decision of where to domicile its corporate and operational, or even disaster recovery equipment or part/s thereof, is amongst other things, price sensitive. Even more so today.  BMIT delivers and exceeds operators’ expectations with unrivalled cost savings and levels of quality and services offered in one customised and flexible package.  

So, when the destination is Malta, the location is BMIT where getting the best value for money with technology is and will remain paramount. Contact us for more details.

Some believe that cloud computing’s only value is in reducing IT costs, however the cloud’s flexibility in providing infrastructure, services and processes means that it is also perfectly able to drive innovation.

The problem with IT in its current form is that it is too slow, while the cloud offers us an opportunity to be faster, better and cheaper. A cloud approach allows businesses to deliver IT services and applications at the speed the business demands, essentially delivering IT ‘on tap’ just like a utility.

In today’s high speed business spectrum, we need IT resources at the speed of our highest velocity operation. This is simply unachievable using traditional IT methods, especially owing to the prohibitive costs but also to spatial constraints and time limitations. The cloud allows businesses to be agile and rapidly respond to the needs of the business as new IT resources can be released faster, with considerably less effort
For many businesses, the term ‘innovation’ means understanding product offerings or key processes, then determining what needs to be changed so as to get a better result. The implementation part of innovation usually becomes an IT project, essentially meaning that the really important part still falls into your IT department's lap.

The question to ask oneself here is “How long does it take to obtain and set up new servers set-up, and applications? How much will it cost and most importantly, can we afford to increase spend on IT personnel and equipment to support short-term experiments? Should we host in-house or use a data centre?”

The cloud is a revolution in how we deliver IT. By shifting responsibility of tasks that keep the company operating but don’t actually add value off the IT department, your resources are freed up. When developers and users end up troubleshooting internal systems instead of designing new products, that signals a lost innovation opportunity. When IT infrastructure bottlenecks slow down development access to new resources, you lose your competitive edge.

By moving to the cloud, with the same budget and resources, your IT can be run by experts whose business is concerned with just that, while your best minds can do what you hired them to do, not troubleshoot and carry out maintenance. Furthermore, by using the cloud, your business will benefit from the collective innovation of all the companies that are coming up with new ways to make the cloud more useful and efficient.

Additionally, although some think that moving to the cloud spells the end of innovation in the infrastructure side of things, this is patently untrue. Cloud companies shoulder the cost of upgrades to systems, leaving more of your cash flow free for innovation. Cloud providers regularly find new ways to make cloud infrastructure more efficient, although the process is invisible to the customer. However, the benefits soon become obvious: speed, lower costs, easier access, and elimination of upgrade hassles.

Of course, if IT can be deployed, configured, and adapted faster, it will spearhead innovation, which is why adopting cloud-based IT in one of its various forms is an important factor in accelerating innovation. Adoption of cloud computing frees time and resources while accelerating innovation. The cloud lets businesses scale and innovate using heavy-duty computing power without having to buy or lease it long-term.

Do you want to advance innovation at work? Contact us for a free consultation now.

The possibility of reducing costs by migrating data from private machines to the cloud is a thrilling proposition for many companies and businesses. Cloud services can not only help to reduce infrastructure costs, they position a company uniquely so as to increase its ICT responsiveness and efficiency, providing greater flexibility and transparency, all while freeing up ICT resources for innovation.

A 2011 study by Clabby Analytics, an IT research and analysis firm, demonstrated that almost 50% of data center costs are due to management labour, as well as the costs associated with equipment. While in the past we used so-called dumb terminals to access our applications and data on the mainframe, today in majority of cases, we use an Internet browser to access all our applications and data on the Internet. However, our back-end, instead of evolving accordingly, has become a server farm, which in and of itself is expensive both to set up and maintain. The cloud, on the other hand, can assist organizations in their drive to reduce several expenses, including those related to system administration and operations, power and cooling, as well as those of space and real estate.  

Over the past few years, cloud providers’ research as well as the lowering costs of dependable technology, have allowed the cloud to become versatile, powerful and affordable. Its reliability is now second to none, yet it requires fewer administrators and at less costs to the user.

A cloud provides highly scalable cloud services that are flexible and subscription-based, so you only pay for what you use. In this way you can predict costs and keep funds allocations on-track even when your requirements change rapidly, as is wont to happen in many business scenarios.

Cloud services help your business meet its goals for a well connected, secure and reliable yet cheaper infrastructure. Collaboration is eased across the organization, while focus can be placed on business-critical needs, while reducing ICT costs. Perhaps most importantly, however is that one can remain confident in a crisis as cloud applications don't depend on your own servers or on-site staff.

The implementation of cloud products is relatively cost-effective when compared to on-premises software, owing to the fact that cloud apps are multi-tenant, meaning that the IT platform and its related costs are shared by customers. Moreover, the large variety of commercial cloud products ensures a better fit right out-of-the-box, which in itself cuts implementation costs. Furthermore, several cloud providers, such as BMIT, don’t charge any implementation fees.

Most cloud apps are often ready to be used immediately or in a few hours, which is another cost cutter and time saver. Moreover, most cloud providers don’t charge for maintenance and provide 24x7 support. Many operate on a subscription model and, since they want you as a long-term customer, they will spend time and effort to keep your company satisfied. Choosing the right cloud provider helps to avoid maintenance and cut costs in many ways.

 Not sure how this applies to your business? Contact us now and we will help you reduce your IT costs.

 

 

One of the best analogies to illustrate ‘the cloud’ is electricity. If I asked you what you’d prefer, to build a small power plant in your garden and make your own electricity, or buy what electricity you need from a company, you’re very likely to say you just want to pay for what you use. The same argument applies to the cloud; you don’t need a server farm in your office, you just need someone who has lots of server farms to let you rent out space or resources in theirs.

While the cloud is conceptually simple, the biggest reservations most people have about cloud computing are those of security and privacy. A number of people find the idea of handing over important data to another company extremely worrisome and they might hesitate to switch to cloud based systems simply because they can't keep their company's data under lock and key.

Of course, what one needs to understand is that the companies who offer cloud computing services have their reputations to lose and having reliable security in place is beneficial to the companies themselves first and foremost. Without excellent security and a reputable track record, the company would lose all its clients. Furthermore, owing to the scale of the cloud, users can achieve better security than if they tried on their own behalf, as the provider’s investment in better security costs less per consumer.

This does not mean that you should not ask the question ‘Where's my data?’ Bear in mind that different countries have different requirements and controls placed on access and that even though your data is in the cloud, it still resides in a physical location, somewhere. Ensure that you choose a cloud company which hosts somewhere sensible and with good security checks in place. At the end of the day, the cloud provider should agree in writing to provide the level of security that you require.

Privacy is another concern many have. The argument is that if a client can log in from any location to access data and applications, it's possible the client's privacy could be compromised. However, cloud computing companies adopt myriad ways to protect client privacy, one of which is using authentication techniques such as user names and passwords. Different levels of authorization also help in minimizing risk; if each user can access only the data and applications relevant to his or her job, the risk that huge swaths of sensitive data are lost is reduced.

 While cost and ease of use are two great benefits of cloud computing, there are security concerns that need to be addressed when considering moving critical applications and sensitive data to public and shared cloud environments.

To address these concerns, the cloud provider must develop controls to provide the same or a greater level of security than the organization would have if they were not using the cloud. However, if you are considering using the cloud, you will need to step back and look at who is managing your data and what types of controls are applied to these individuals and the data itself.

Have you got any other concern about cloud adoption? Contact us now. We are willing to help.

 

 

Cloud computing presents both time and money-saving benefits, making it a great fit for small businesses. In fact, small businesses that are not part of the cloud could very well be missing out on opportunities that could help them grow and take their businesses to the next level.

The cloud has given small business owners access to software and hardware which in the past were only available to big players. Cloud services are an excellent leveler, as they give the small business owner access to the best tools around, yet without a huge capital investment and without having to pay for an in-house IT expert for maintenance. When one considers that the most important concerns for small businesses are saving money and increasing productivity and uptime, one can clearly see that the cloud achieves all three aims very ably. 

Perhaps the most noticeable way in which small businesses benefit from using the cloud is through a significant reduction in costs. If you use cloud services, you will need to spend much less on IT-related costs, such as servers, software and support devices which are normally required as part of business. Network management costs will also be decreased, given that the cloud can be used as central hub for deployments, while the overall information technology expenses are certain to decrease as well. In many instances all capital costs are eliminated, and hence such cost reductions can have a significant impact on the business’ profitability.

The difference in cost comes because of the fundamentally different payment philosophy. With cloud computing, you pay only for what you use, making this far friendlier to small business than the approach of traditional hardware, software, and IT purchases which eat away at the financial resources of so many small businesses due to the initial costs involved.

Yet another significant advantage small businesses enjoy when using the cloud is its inherent capability to scale up or down as required in very short order. Be it increasing storage or processing power or having spikes in web traffic, the cloud has you covered, and better still, you don’t have to get your hands dirty and take care of any of it; it’s all in the hands of your supplier.

With the cloud, you are empowered to add software and hardware as your needs arise, without having to worry about running out of space, data or hardware at the moment you need them most. 

Updating becomes similarly painless when using the cloud. If you’re using a Software as a Service, all updates are the responsibility of the provider, and you’ll never have to worry about downtime, data loss or anything of the sort. Similarly, if you’re updating your own software, rather than calling in the IT department, all you need to do is upload it to the cloud and let it filter through to all of your computers.

Perhaps one of the most practical and tangible examples of the cloud’s advantages is its disdain for location. If you use a cloud service, you can use it anywhere in the world you are, off any device which supports the internet. In these wildly technological times, people and products are on the move all the time, and to stay competitive, your business and your people need the ability to access information and keep your business up to date, no matter where they are. The cloud provides this advantage. Regardless of where your employees, your clients, and your business partners are in the world right now, they’re free to connect and keep updated, to the second!

The cloud is an exciting innovation for all small business owners, as it presents an unprecedented level playing field with technology. Investing in the cloud is a wise business move which will save you time, money and hassles in the future.

BMIT earns distinction through demonstrated technology success and customer commitment

BMIT Limited, Malta’s leading data centre, has achieved a Microsoft Silver Hosting competency, demonstrating its ability to meet customers’ evolving hosting needs in today’s dynamic business environment. To achieve this competency, a number of BMIT employees acquired certifications in several related subjects, and the company assured the endorsement of several customers in relation to the company’s expertise and customer service.

This certification follows on several other recent initiatives taken by BMIT in the areas of data centre services, cloud offerings and hosting solutions, in which the company is a leading player. BMIT is now better positioned to expand its service offering, including providing an even more personalized offering to its customers in such areas.

“As part of our drive to provide a more enhanced product portfolio to our customers, at BMIT we are investing considerably in training and development to allow our employees to acquire the required competencies and certifications. The achievement of the Microsoft Silver Hosting competency is yet another milestone in our skill development plan”, commented Jack Mizzi, Chief Marketing and BD Officer at BMIT Limited.

“By achieving a silver competency, organisations have proven their expertise in specific technology areas, placing them among the top 5% of Microsoft partners worldwide,” said Kevin Schembri, Solutions and Partners Manager at Microsoft Malta. “When customers look for an IT partner to meet their business challenges, choosing a company that has attained Microsoft competencies such as BMIT is a smart move. These are highly qualified professionals with access to Microsoft technical support and product teams.”

BMIT has, over these last years, established itself as one of the leading providers of co-location, hosting and managed services to online gaming companies in Europe. It is currently diversifying its product offering and now also provides services to a wide range of customers, including those in the financial services, legal, architecture, IT solutions and retail businesses among others. The company operates 2 data centres in Malta, with full power and multiple communications redundancy, complemented by the highest standard of operation, management and security, befitting a data centre set-up which provides services to companies with multi-million turnovers, all dependent on the services which BMIT provides them.

The Microsoft Partner Network helps partners strengthen their capabilities to showcase leadership in the marketplace on the latest technology, to better serve customers and, with 640,000 Microsoft partners in their ecosystem, to easily connect with one of the most active, diverse networks in the world.

If there is one term which the IT industry has bandied about often in the past few months, that terms would be ‘the Cloud’, or a variant of it, ‘Cloud Services’. But what exactly is the cloud, how does it work, and how does it affect me or my business?

Cloud services essentially means ‘using someone else’s hardware and software for your computing needs’, be it storage, a service such as a hosted software or computing power you’re looking for. Cloud services aren’t only about storing things on someone else's hard drives, it’s a revolution in the way services and information is spread.

You probably already use some version of cloud services. If you use Facebook and upload photos there, you’re using the cloud. Same applies to Gmail and Google Docs, Flickr, Dropbox and hundreds of other very popular services; they’re all cloud based.

There are three kinds of cloud services and these are -

So what is the cloud exactly? Well, you could say that the simple answer is that the cloud is the internet. Using the internet you can connect to other people’s resources and use them when you need them, without having to purchase expensive equipment yourself.

The advantages of the cloud, especially to the business world, are countless. The cloud drastically cuts down the need for specialised servers and traditional paid-for desktop software. Very often cloud services cost much less than buying and running infrastructure yourself, and it takes the pain and hassle of updates entirely out of your responsibility, as that is the provider’s job. This frees up your own internal resources, as the lawww software updates and patches do not have to be done by your own staff members.

A characteristic of the cloud is its elasticity, which means that the cloud can rapidly scale up or down according to current needs, without the need for your IT department to scale or update any system themselves. IT departments which use the cloud can be seen as having an endless supply of computing resources readily available as necessity dictates.

Cloud services are also extremely reliable, as should your own computer crash, the lawww version of the document you’re working on has already been saved on the cloud

The convenience of cloud services has been much touted, and not without reason. Using the cloud, you can access your data or service from anywhere you have internet coverage, be it at home or work, or via your laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile phone.

If your business is only just starting out with your exploration of the cloud, there are a few of highly mature cloud services that can be considered as "low-hanging fruit”, such as email services. In fact, Microsoft Hosted Exchange as offered by BMIT provides hosted email, calendar and contacts on your PC, phone and web browser. However, it is wise to consider evolving your internal infrastructure toward a more cloud-like model as increasingly, this is the direction in which business is headed, and the cloud’s advantages are considerable indeed.

As a leading data centre for online gaming operators we will, once again, be participating at iGaming Super Show 2012 in Dublin, Ireland - 22nd to 25th May 2012. Come visit us at Stand E52.

To make the most of your visit, we suggest you send us your details below and we will be in touch to set a mutually convenient time to meet.

[form 3 "Events Meeting"]