Sirius computer solutions: hosting the power cloud service offering without adding undue risk

INDUSTRY:

Information Technology Services

CHALLENGE:

Meeting clients' demands for cloud services by finding the right partner to host its Power Cloud service offering-without adding undue risk.

SOLUTION:

Iron Mountain Data Centers colocation services

VALUE:

• Enabled visibility and control for its Power Cloud offering, without the capital cost of building out a data center.
• Deployed innovative data center modules to better utilize data center space and add value for clients.
• Set the stage for a global footprint to meet its customers' growth strategies.

MAINTAINING CONTROL IN THE CLOUD

If Sirius Computer Solutions is doing its job, its clients don't have to worry about IT design or maintenance, availability, capacity or performance. The firm manages the IT infrastructures of 4,400 active clients-large and small, in industries as varied as healthcare, government, retail, and insurance.

"Our goal is to allow our clients to focus on their core business, while we focus on systems management-both from an operational and technical perspective-24 by 7 by 365," explained Jay Johnson, Vice President of Managed Services. "Sirius gives clients the freedom to focus on the applications, on where their business is going, as opposed to the design and day-to-day maintenance of IT infrastructure."

Increasingly, client demand for cloud services-with anywhere, anytime access as well as easy scalability and a predictive cost structure-is growing fast, and Sirius wants to be the one to deliver those services.

Finding the right partner

That required finding the right partner. The company has a sterling 35-year reputation to uphold. While offering cloud services would benefit clients, Sirius was not going to move those clients to the cloud if it meant adding risk.

Sirius sought a data center partner that would allow it to maintain control over its clients' infrastructures. "We needed a data center partner different from all the rest...a partner able to offer us flexibility, sustainability, and availability," Johnson explained.

To Sirius, it all came down to innovation. "The right data center partner for our cloud services would need to do more than provide cage space or floor space," said Johnson. "They would need to provide visibility into how the data center is performing."

Iron Mountain really gives us a unique value in that we can see what's going on inside our colocation environment."

Jay Johnson, VP/Managed Services

DCIM for visibility and control

Sirius chose Iron Mountain as its primary data center provider for its Power Cloud because of the innovativeness of their data center technology. "Iron Mountain really gives us a unique value in that we can see what's going on inside our colocation environment," said Johnson.

Iron Mountain's data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software monitors, tracks, and maintains a record of all critical data center systems. The Sirius team now has continuous feedback and single-pane visibility into all of its data center operations. "Iron Mountain is a great place to put our Power Cloud," said Johnson, "because of the availability and the transparency within the Iron Mountain data centers."

Sirius wants to understand events before they become issues for its clients. The visibility and control Sirius gets through Iron Mountain's DCIM makes that possible.

A data center within a data center

Sirius' cloud infrastructure resides in data center modules in Phoenix and New Jersey. It sees the modules as an innovative way to utilize data center space and add value for clients. "As we look out at Iron Mountain's competitors, we don't see that same innovation driving new technologies in the data center space," said Johnson.

Sirius now has the tools and capabilities to optimize space, mix and match technologies, and better scale its business. "Inside a module, we can plug and play technologies where they make sense," Johnson explained. "We can add high-density hardware. We can add additional bandwidth.

"Now we have a data center that we didn't need to provide ourselves," said Johnson. "We wanted the visibility and control, without the capital cost of building our own."

Competitive differentiation

Iron Mountain's DCIM also enables cost efficiencies. "Because we have visibility into the data center, we can optimize our power consumption and our cooling. Those incremental changes really add huge benefits to our clients as we scale," Johnson said. "Most of the other data centers out there just don't provide the level of transparency that's important to our clients, and it's important to us to provide great service."

Iron Mountain also provides geographic redundancy between Sirius' colocation sites, as well as the ability to grow. "That's a unique value for us," Johnson explained. "Plus, the diverse footprint of Iron Mountain really gives us flexibility as we grow out our cloud offerings." Today, Sirius provides cloud service in the U.S., but as its clients look to expand globally, Iron Mountain can help. "Iron Mountain's global expansion allows us to have a worldwide footprint," said Johnson.

Bottom line

"What we're trying to do, at the end of the day, is provide value to our clients," explained Johnson. "Iron Mountain gives us the benefit of visibility in a data center within a data center environment. That allows us to optimize and improve our availability. And that's a differentiator for Sirius as we go to market."

"Now we have a data center that we didn't need to provide ourselves. We wanted the visibility and control, without the capital cost of building our own."

- Jay Johnson, VP/Managed Services