Managed Applications
[Notes: Journalists are invited to quote and use information from the backgrounder below, but please ensure all comment is attributed to Claranet’s Group Chief Operations Officer, Olivier Beaudet]
In a perfect world, individual software applications would be able to support businesses without needing to be upgraded. Unfortunately this is rarely, if ever, true for applications in the real world. As a business evolves its needs will change. The same application that worked so well for a few staff and a modest customer database will not perform as efficiently for multi-site offices, large teams and countless customer contacts.
Applications need to be optimised in order to provide the best levels of functionality, availability and performance. Sadly, this involves a great deal of laborious, mundane and time-consuming work. Over-worked IT departments can ill-afford to spend valuable man hours on application management when they could be focusing on strategic projects. The key factors affecting application performance are:
The inefficient eco-system
One key factor is the network environment in which applications operate. Many businesses – even those with dedicated IT departments – encounter problems with optimising the application “eco-system” of servers, operating systems and infrastructure. Problems with this eco-system can have a detrimental effect on the smooth running and availability of business-critical software.
Fragmentary organisation
Most businesses add their applications over time, as and when new software becomes available. This fragmentary organisation poses problems for IT administrators – the lack of centralisation makes it harder to monitor and administer applications, while making it impossible to manage the system of applications as a whole.
De-tuned applications
Modern applications have a whole host of functionalities. Even a simple messaging system now incorporates archival, security and mobility components. Each one of these functions must be tailored to a company’s specific needs if the application is to operate as efficiently as possible. An application that works well for a network of five people will not necessarily perform for fifty. The nuts and bolts of software – the coding – needs to be fine-tuned like a car’s engine to fit the specific needs of individual organisations.
Outdated data
Optimisation of applications is not enough to ensure that they run smoothly and efficiently. Many applications need to be regularly updated – even on a daily basis – to ensure that important data is kept up-to-date. An obvious example of this is a database of key customers or clients. Updating applications is a mundane, time-consuming and joyless drudge for over-worked IT staff. It isn’t just updating data that takes up time – IT managers also need to upgrade software, back-up critical data, patch applications and even adapt them to fit in with regulatory changes.
What’s more, as a business grows its needs change, and this has an impact on applications. Larger companies clearly have greater capacity requirements and also demand higher functionality from their software. It is the over-worked IT department that bears the responsibility for maintaining the availability and performance of the key applications that everyone else in the business takes for granted.
Applications cause half of all web problems
Recent research from Claranet, the Managed Services Provider for business, found that up to 47 per cent of problems encountered in developing and maintaining enterprise web systems were caused by applications. Applications are by far the greatest single threat to the availability of companies’ vital IT networks. The research also showed that half of IT departments in the UK spend around 20 per cent of their time on server administration, with the average IT manager spending 540 hours a year on application management. Not only is this time-consuming, wasteful and tedious work, it also prevents IT departments from focusing on strategic projects.
The answer is Managed Applications
As more and more companies are finding, the answer to the expensive and time-consuming problem of application administration is to outsource the day-to-day running of their applications to specialist applications managers such as Claranet. Claranet’s Managed Applications service optimises the performance and availability of applications. This benefits their customers by gaining efficiencies in their IT systems through applications’ reduced downtime and increased performance. Outsourcing also cuts costs – both in terms of time and money.
Experts in managed applications understand the importance of managing each part of the application eco-system. Claranet designs and builds bespoke network architectures for chosen applications, while its expert technical teams monitor and proactively manage their clients’ applications servers – and the environment in which they operate – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to ensure the smooth day-to-day running of critical software. A full managed applications service will take responsibility for the entire IT infrastructure by providing managed storage, hardware and network services. Every part of the infrastructure, from firewalls and load balancers to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), is fully managed and optimised. Claranet’s team of experts also ensures the high availability of all services through backup-and-restore features, with inbuilt redundancy eliminating single points of failure.
Applications themselves are up-dated, patched, backed-up and tailored to each business’s unique needs. Most importantly of all, Claranet will use the data collected from day-to-day administration to help evolve a business’s applications over time.
Highly experienced technical support staff should be on hand to advise and support services that are customised to their clients’ needs and fully scalable to meet the individual demands of growing businesses. Managed Services Providers that provide a managed applications service should provide professional, personalised support for their clients. Claranet provides a Technical Account Manager. This highly-skilled technical consultant will understand a business’s IT infrastructure, internal processes and overall business needs and will act as a single point of contact for high-level technical matters.
By outsourcing to a Managed Services Provider like Claranet, which offers these guarantees companies save time and money, ensure that their critical applications perform at their optimum level and are freed to concentrate on their core business activity.
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Notes to editors:
Journalists are invited to quote and use information from the backgrounder below but please ensure all comment is attributed to Olivier Beaudet, Group Chief Operations Officer, Claranet Limited.
For further editorial information or to arrange an interview please email the Claranet press office or telephone 020 7609 1900.
About Olivier Beaudet:
Olivier Beaudet is an expert in managed services, data management and IT outsourcing services.
He has more than a decade’s experience of working in senior roles in France and the UK IT industry.
Before joining Claranet, Olivier was for ten years Chief Executive of Artful, a managed applications services provider which he launched in 1997. Before founding Artful he was multimedia developer and project manager at the French company Havas, and helped to developed Havas Online, France’s first low-cost ISP.
Olivier has had particular success in piloting Artful through the dotcom bust and establishing it as a major player in the industry, winning major accounts such as Airbus, Veolia, Hermes, Universal Music, Canal Plus and Vivendi.
Claranet acquired Artful in 2005; in 2007 Olivier was appointed Claranet Group Chief Operations Officer, with the responsibility of unifying Claranet’s operations in Europe and the USA.
About Claranet:
Claranet was established in 1996 as a dial-up Internet access provider in the UK. The company's sustained profitability has resulted in continuous reinvestment, transforming Claranet into a multi-national managed service provider.
Today Claranet provides flexible and tailored network infrastructure that performs to the requirements of its 300,000 customers across six European countries and the US.
Claranet customers have confidence in their connectivity. Customers are served by experienced, innovative and dependable technicians.
Claranet commits to the highest standard of service level agreement.
URL: www.uk.clara.net