Misys Virtualises its IT Infrastructure With iomart Hosting

GLASGOW, Scotland, December 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Banking & treasury software leader chooses cloud computing provider as exclusive UK hosting partner

iomart Hosting, the UK cloud computing and managed hosting services provider, has provided a virtualised platform to help Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L) consolidate its IT infrastructure in the UK.

Misys, the global market leader delivering application software and services for banking, treasury and capital markets, reviewed its hosting services this year and decided to create an exclusive relationship with iomart Hosting. iomart Hosting's London data centre has in essence become Misys' European data centre.  

Phil Davies, Director IS for Misys UK & EMEA, explains: "We operate on the basis of a 'one-Misys' culture and the decision to go with a single direct provider of hosting is another symbol of that ethos.  We already had a relationship with iomart Hosting and were impressed. The decision to use them as our sole host has proved the right one. As soon as the relationship was formalised, the benefits were tangible. There was an immediate improvement in the stability of our equipment and complete engagement with our business objectives."

Employing more than 4,000 people, Misys serves 1,300 customers in over 120 countries, including all of the world's top 50 banks. Leading analyst firm, Gartner has positioned Misys as a leader in its Magic Quadrant for both 'Treasury & Trading Systems' and 'International Retail Core Banking'.

iomart Hosting owns and manages its secure data centre network. Dedicated on-site NOC teams manage and monitor customers' mission-critical systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The consolidation of its hosting provision has proved successful for Misys in the UK and will be considered for other key locations globally in the future.

"This round the clock support fits in completely with our global presence," says Phil. "Our IT teams can contact the data centre night or day wherever they are around the world."

iomart Hosting supports a fully virtualised platform including Netapp for SAN, with an internal private cloud. This platform hosts all of the Misys HR, finance and business intelligence functions, plus the company's Enterprise Resource Planning for the UK and EMEA.

Phil Davies explains: "The benefits of virtualisation and private cloud for Misys go hand-in-hand. It has massively reduced not only our physical footprint but also the associated costs. It gives us greater agility and flexibility, allowing us to be much more responsive to demands for change in the IT infrastructure as the business grows and adapts to what our customers want.

We use enterprise-class hardware which feeds through to high availability and recoverability. Our whole critical IT structure is safeguarded by the controls and security that iomart Hosting has in place." 

Sarah Haran, managing director of iomart Hosting, adds: "Integration is at the heart of everything that Misys does, so our task at iomart Hosting was to continue that philosophy through to the virtualised platform. We work hard to architect solutions that support our clients' business requirements rather than those that are just easiest to implement."  

The data centre infrastructure and reliability and security provided by iomart Hosting also has another very important benefit for Misys.

"There's an underlying professionalism at work with everything we do with iomart Hosting," Phil Davies explains. "This has provided an important level of reassurance for our auditors, our insurers and our customers." 

He concludes: "There's a real depth to our engagement. Misys considers iomart Hosting to be a partner not a provider."

iomart Hosting is part of iomart Group plc which announced on Monday 19 December 2011 that it had entered the FTSE AIM 100 Index.

Notes to Editors:

About iomart Hosting

iomart Hosting is one of the UK's leading providers of complex managed hosting and cloud computing services to the enterprise market. It owns and manages its own network infrastructure, including five UK data centres, offering a unique 100% uptime guarantee. Services include: Private and Hybrid Cloud, Colocation, Content Delivery Networks, IP Transit, Cloud Storage and Email.

Clients include: Cimex, BT plc, Stagecoach, Newsquest, Learndirect, SoftCat, London School of Economics, Shine TV, STV, and Servecentric.

iomart Hosting is an ISO9001 & ISO27001 certified company. The company is fully accredited at Gold Partner level with VMware, Oracle and Microsoft. It is part of AIM 100 listed iomart Group plc.

About iomart Group plc

iomart Group is one of the UK's leading providers of managed hosting and cloud computing services. From a single server through to private cloud networks, iomart specialises in the delivery and management of mission-critical hosting services, enabling customers to reduce the costs, complexity and risks associated with maintaining their own web and online applications.

By physically owning and managing its own global network infrastructure, iomart offers world-beating levels of service to its customers. The Group offers a unique 100% uptime guarantee with all hosting services being engineered to ensure no single point of failure.

iomart Group operates in its chosen markets through a number of subsidiaries: iomart Hosting, RapidSwitch, Titan Internet, Easyspace and Westcoastcloud. iomart is listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) 100 Index. 

News release issued on behalf of iomart Hosting by Jane Robertson, Head of PR for iomart Group plc. For more information please email jane.robertson@iomart.com or call +44(0)141-931-6474 (dir), +44(0)141-931-6400 or +44(0)7827948993 (mob).