IBM Global Technology Services
Case Study
Acuity ICT meets all
customer needs with IBM
SmartCloud Enterprise
The challenge
Acuity ICT wanted to give customers a
wide range of cloud-based applications,
server capacity, testing and development
possibilities, and save on the purchase and
maintenance of its own servers.
Solution
The Infrastructure-as-a-Service solution
(IaaS) IBM SmartCloud Enterprise. Acuity
ICT uses this to test, develop and run its
own applications and those of customers
and partners.
Key benefits
Acuity ICT is able to meet all its customer
need – from offering to developing and
testing cloud servers and applications.
Customers can quickly and inexpensively
scale capacity up and back, and pay only
for what they actually use, thanks to the
pay-per-use model.
IBM SmartCloud Enterprise allows Acuity ICT to meet the needs
of its customers down to the last detail – meaning that the Unified
Communication and Collaboration solutions specialist can offer
diverse, flexible cloud solutions and server storage of all sizes, for
any desired period, and in combination with any application.
Acuity ICT applies the pay-per-use principle: Customers pay only
for what they actually use.
Acuity ICT delivers, designs, tests and implements software applications for customers and partners, specializing in the development of
UC and Collaboration (UC²) applications based on IBM technology.
(The Den Bosch based company is also a premier IBM Business
Partner.) Its customers can opt to run applications from the cloud or via
an on-premises server in their own environments.
The company has a strong service mentality, and the needs of customers and end-users are top priorities. Its ICT specialists routinely
examine the business processes of customers from a functional perspective, in order to better inform them on the best applications, software
technologies and implementation processes for their organizations.
The flexibility customers need
Acuity ICT recently opted for IBM SmartCloud Enterprise for two
main reasons. “First of all, we wanted to offer our customers flexibility
and a wide range of cloud-based solutions,” says Ronald Dekkers,
Technical Director of Acuity ICT. “IBM SmartCloud Enterprise makes
it possible for customers to choose any possible cloud server – whether
they need ten 64-bit Windows servers or a single 32-bit Linux server.
Second, we wanted to save on the management and purchasing of
hardware for our own in-house applications and our testing.” As a
result of getting IBM SmartCloud Enterprise, the company is now no
longer purchasing new hardware and has not renewed its maintenance
agreements on its in-house hardware.
IBM Global Technology Services
Case Study
A solution for everyone – suppliers, customers
and partners
Previously, all Acuity ICT applications used to run on two in-house
servers (one Windows and one IBM Power System). When developing,
running and testing cloud solutions for customers, the ICT specialist
would lease server space in datacenters from other suppliers.
Now, Acuity ICT purchases server and network capacity – for itself, as
well as for customers and partners – via the Infrastructure-as-a-Service
(IaaS) solution IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.
“We wanted to give customers
flexibility and a wide range of
cloud-based solutions”
— Ronald Dekkers
The IaaS solution gives Acuity ICT a hybrid environment, so its UC²
specialists can offer customers cloud-based applications and a cloudbased server. (Acuity ICT also provides customers with other cloud
solutions, such as IBM SmartCloud for Social Business – a software
platform with diverse UC² applications like instant messaging and
e-mail.) Acuity ICT is now migrating its own applications to the cloud
in phases and is using the cloud servers for testing and developing its
in-house applications. The standard IBM SmartCloud Enterprise
Service Level Agreement (SLA) is flexible, which makes it possible for
Acuity ICT to quickly scale capacity up and back without extra cost.
The reliability customers need
“As an IBM Business Partner, we are well-placed to know the quality
we can expect from IBM with respect to reliability, performance and
flexibility,” recounts Dekkers, reflecting on the reasons behind the
choice. “The flexible offerings via the pay-per-use model fit perfectly
with our business. We serve diverse customers, from SMEs running a
single CRM system in the cloud to large organizations requiring
dozens of cloud servers. IBM SmartCloud Enterprise offers us the
flexibility to cater to both.”
The reliability and transparency of IBM datacenters also influenced the
company’s decision. “Our customers want to know about the datacenter
that contains their applications and data,” he explains. “And they want
to know for certain that their business-critical data and software are in
good hands. That is all absolutely no problem with IBM, because their
datacenters have excellent protection – for example, by not being
located along flight paths. There’s a good reason why organizations
such as the FBI and NASA rely on IBM datacenters.”
IBM Global Technology Services
Case Study
The customer is king
Flexibility is critical for a service-minded organization like Acuity ICT,
and IBM SmartCloud Enterprise makes it possible for the company to
meet a wide diversity of customer needs – from different types of server
and application, to different amounts of server space, time-of-use and
speed. “We are able to add a server within an hour if that’s what our
customers want,” says Dekkers. “That used to take much longer when
our consultants had to configure and install the server first.” The fact
that Acuity ICT uses the same solutions itself that it offers its customers also has benefits, allowing its ICT specialists to serve customers
with even better advice and guidance. “It makes us true experts. We
know in detail what is involved in a specific software migration, test or
installation – because we have probably already been through it
ourselves.”
Savings through flexibility
Using IBM SmartCloud Enterprise, Acuity ICT’s customers pay only
for the server and network capacity they use, a model that allows them
to enjoy significant savings. “They no longer need to lease or purchase
a server for a longer period,” he explains. “And the same advantage
applies to us. For example, we can now pay by the minute to lease a
server for proof-of-concept testing for a few days or weeks. What’s
more, our consultants no longer need to install customer applications
and servers themselves. They are available, as it were, à la carte. And
because our in-house applications run on servers in the IBM datacenter,
we also save substantially on electricity and management costs.”
Acuity partners also benefit from the extensive range of IaaS solutions.
For example, when they wish to install specific applications, IBM has
developed an API that automatically includes the specific application in
the installation wizard after a single installation – meaning that Acuity
partners no longer need to reinvent the wheel during software installations. So not only do Acuity ICT and its customers benefit from IBM
SmartCloud Enterprise, but its partners do as well.
Ronald Dekkers
Technical Director of Acuity ICT
“The flexible services provided via the
pay-per-use model fits our business
perfectly”
— Ronald Dekkers
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