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Case Studies | Digica

DIGICA CHOOSES HALCYON DATA CENTRE MANAGEMENT SUITE TO MAINTAIN ALL ITS IBM System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) SERVERS.

Four year ‘pay-as-you-go’ contract with Halcyon Software to provide Digica with monitoring and automation software for all outsourcing operations

Digica, a supplier of managed IT services to the public and private sector, is using Halcyon Software’s Data Centre Management Suite - its comprehensive suite of systems monitoring, management and automation tools across its Nottingham and Leeds Data Centres. The software maintains and manages forty-eight System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) systems affecting 13,000 users. The ‘pay-as-you-go’ software rental basis of the contract was particularly attractive as it fits neatly with the commercial model which Digica offers to its customers.

Digica operates purpose-built data centres in Nottingham, Leeds and Warrington in the UK, and in Cape Town, South Africa. Digica provides managed services and IT outsourcing to its core markets, which include mid-tier private sector organisations, local authorities and NHS trusts.

Phil Carnell, Global Operations Bridge Manager for Digica, comments, “Key to our decision to sign a four-year contract for use of the Halcyon Data Centre Management Suite was the exceptional functionality of both the System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) automation tools and the integrated GUI, the ‘Enterprise Console’. The solution allows us to monitor multiple servers from a single location and automate end-of-day processes. The software will enable us to maximise performance across all of our clients’ System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) systems without increasing manpower and minimising the need for out-of-hours support”

By filtering and gathering important events from all servers and logical partitions, and providing the systems operators with a comprehensive overview of this information on a single graphical interface, Halcyon’s Enterprise Console enables the IT support team to effectively monitor Digica’s entire network of System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) systems across remote data centres.

Meanwhile, the individual System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) modules within Halcyon Data Centre Management Suite automatically monitor and manage all of Digica’s customers’ systems. Any problems, or even potential problems, are alerted back to Digica’s systems operators through messages appearing on the Enterprise Console’s GUI.

Carnell adds, “The Halcyon Enterprise Console forms the central hub of our outsourcing operations, for the System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) platform. Having the use of all the System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) solutions means that we have peace of mind that all processes can be automated as much as possible minimising the need for human intervention. Also, as we are responsible for many systems, the functionality of the integrated Enterprise Console gives Digica the opportunity to exploit the benefits of having a single focal point for all system alerts. In turn, this gives our customers improved response times to issues which previously would have required operator intervention.”

Carnell concludes by commenting on the relationship with Halcyon, “When it comes to support Halcyon are excellent people to deal with. They are prepared to listen to individual customer requirements with a view to the continuous improvement and further development of their products, which ultimately benefits all of their customers. Their understanding of System i™ (iSeries™, AS/400™) servers is first class.”