Data centres Q&A: R&G Technologies

Tell us about your data centre offering.

Neville: All of our client’s data is stored in three data centres in Australia: two in Brisbane and one in Sydney. They are Host Networks, Over The Wire and Equinix Sydney. We provide co-location and infrastructure-as-a-service from these locations.

What managed services are being provided from these data centres?

Neville: Primarily we provide IaaS, which is a hosted virtual-server solution running on Azure Pack. We also provide hosted Citrix Desktops, Exchange, SharePoint and Microsoft CRM for our clients.

What technology is essential to your managed services and data centre mix?

Neville: Dell, Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix and Cyberoam are our primary vendors. Where possible, we utilise the complete Microsoft stack including Hyper-V at the hypervisor level and Azure Pack.

When did your company first get involved in this area?

Neville: We started hosting our first servers and setting up our hosted desktop service in 2007.

Heard about any cool data centre technology lately?

Neville: We keep hearing positives things about Nimble Storage. We’ve also been investigating Vblock as our requirements continue to grow.

Can you tell us about a recent customer project?

Neville: One of our clients is a residential builder. Starting off with two offices, they had built a franchise model that was heavily reliant on proprietary software systems and data, which needed to be accessed by all future franchisees. We embarked to migrate them to our IaaS platform.

What is driving customers towards data centre services?

Neville: The desire for mobility and improved system performance is definitely driving this. We’ve found more customers understanding that these types of technology can give them a real competitive advantage in the market.

Data centres are…?

Neville: The cornerstone in the delivery of cloud and managed services. They are a great way for organisations to benefit from improved uptime and performance without having to make huge capital investments for themselves.