VMtech shifts Shimano's DR into top gear

Australian cycling and fishing gear manufacturer Shimano has enlisted Sydney-based VMtech as its managed services provider.

VMtech was initially contacted to design and implement a storage solution for Shimano’s distribution centre in Sydney; Shimano then contacted VMtech to deliver a full managed services and hosted disaster recovery solution.

Shimano’s new DR-as-a-service solution is based on newly signed VMtech vendor Zerto and NetApp Flexpod architecture.

Shimano IT manager Tim Clarke said that high-performance, reliable infrastructure and an enhanced disaster recovery was key to the company’s new distribution centre in Caringbah, NSW.

“The business benefits of having specialists manage and monitor our infrastructure clearly outshone the benefits of developing an internal IT team and was commercially advantageous,” said Clarke.

“On similar lines, we also strengthened our disaster recovery and business continuity capability with VMtech’s fully managed, hosted DR platform which offered us a flexible, consumption billing model and saved us the headache of building our own DR environment.”

VMtech chief technical officer Richard Clark said the company had seen a growing demand for its as-a-service offerings recently, especially disaster recover.

“Our engagement to deliver DR-as-a-service and managed services to Shimano is consistent with the increasing demand for such services, and our ability to provide impressive service level agreements at a cost effective rate,” said Clark.

“The success of our partnership with Shimano reinforces the capability of our team and the relevancy of our solutions in enabling our customers’ success.”

VMtech came in at No.16 in the 2015 CRN Fast50, with 87.03 percent growth. It was also awarded with the CRN Editor’s Award.