Recognizing that security concerns were holding many companies back from embracing cloud computing, IT service provider OV-IT launched its private cloud hosting services powered by Lenovo technology. With a modular architecture based on flexible, scalable IT infrastructure located in data centers in Germany, the company wins the trust of clients and delivers customized cloud services, reducing its clients’ IT costs.

OV-IT Oelker & Volz Computer GmbH Building up trust with flexible cloud services and total transparency

IT service provider OV-IT Oelker & Volz Computer GmbH offers fully transparent infrastructure and cloud services to medium to large companies in all industries. Headquartered in Frankfurt-Eschborn, Germany, OV-IT employs around 20 experienced consultants committed to delivering reliable IT solutions that meet each client’s unique business needs.

Control in the cloudThe popularity of cloud computing shows no sign of slowing, with more and more organizations now choosing to move IT operations from on-premise deployments into the cloud. For many companies, however, the limited transparency that cloud service providers typically offer is a major business and regulatory concern.

Matthias Volz, Managing Partner at OV-IT, points out: “Using cloud services often means relinquishing control of your data – an extremely valuable asset for any business. With many cloud service providers, you do not know where your data is stored physically, so it could be anywhere in the world. This lack of visibility and control is hugely problematic for some businesses, particularly those with sensitive data. Many of our clients operate in highly-regulated industries, such as finance and trade, so data residency is a key consideration when moving to the cloud. Also, storage availability and advanced recovery capabilities are essential for certain clients who need or like to know where critical data is located.”

To give its clients complete peace of mind that their data is secure, OV-IT offers customized private cloud hosting services that are ‘Made in Germany’ – guaranteeing that all data is stored in Germany and subject to German data protection laws.

Andreas Volz, Managing Partner at OV-IT, explains: “All our cloud services are hosted in our data centers in Eschborn and Frankfurt so clients know exactly where their data is stored, right down to the specific device and disk. For some clients, it’s a matter of adhering to industry or government regulations that require data to be stored in Germany. But in most cases, our clients simply want to know where their data is located for peace of mind. Offering transparency and control over data storage help us convince customers of the benefits of cloud computing.

Teaming up with LenovoUnderpinning OV-IT’s growing cloud hosting services based on local data centers is the company’s extensive IT infrastructure from long-term partner Lenovo.

Matthias Volz comments: “We’ve been working with Lenovo for many years, and when the Lenovo Service Provider Program launched, we were happy to join. We are very satisfied with our close partnership – in all the years that we’ve worked with Lenovo, we’ve never been let down by either the technology or the support they provide.”

The Lenovo Service Provider Program gives companies like OV-IT the ability to purchase Lenovo infrastructure at competitive prices with flexible financing plans.

OV-IT offers its clients a wide range of hosting options based on several different types of shared or dedicated clusters, designed to meet their different business and performance needs. After reviewing the individual client situation, OV-IT selects the most appropriate cloud hosting environment, ranging from Lenovo System x3550 M5 to System x3650 M5 servers, with various storage offerings starting at cost-effective mid-range storage solutions and going up to high-performance SAN systems, as well as the latest software-defined storage solutions.

“It really depends on what the client needs,” says Matthias Volz. “From our point of view, we’ve got easy access to a variety of Lenovo solutions. Being a Lenovo Service Provider partner means that we are well-positioned to implement clusters that exactly meet clients’ business requirements.”

Building on the Lenovo infrastructure, OV-IT offers easily scalable, ready-to-use cloud services such as the open source storage and collaboration solution ownCloud. This enables clients to benefit from all the comfort of true cloud solutions with full transparency about data center location and infrastructure.

In addition, OV-IT also leverages the Lenovo solutions to provide comprehensive custom applications including intranet portals and web-based collaboration services based on Intrexx software.

Andreas Volz remarks: “Our Software-as-a-Service cloud offerings ownCloud and Intrexx enable our clients to support complex workflows and share documents whenever needed, wherever they are. Thanks to the highly reliable Lenovo systems, we can guarantee high availability at a competitive price.”

Delivering stellar servicesConfigured as separate clusters with different components, OV-IT’s hosting infrastructure offers a range of service classes, all with high levels of availability, reliability and performance.

Andreas Volz comments: “Our overall infrastructure architecture has proven to be flexible, effective and cost-efficient – enabling us to serve varying business needs, from internal web applications to mission-critical ERP systems. This means that we can tailor our solutions to meet clients’ individual requirements more easily and deliver a better service. For example, small companies can choose more cost-effective mid-range storage, while larger companies with round-the-clock operations can opt for more powerful configurations with higher levels of redundancy – and complexity. Running around 15 separate, smaller clusters with approximately 50 servers in total also makes it easier for us to manage our environments and make technical adjustments to the infrastructure as needed.”

With up to 10 clients and between 100 and 200 virtual machines on each cluster, OV-IT makes the best use of the powerful Lenovo servers based on the fast lntel® Xeon® E5 processor family. This helps the company to maintain healthy profit margins in a highly competitive market.

As part of the Lenovo Service Provider Program, OV-IT can take advantage of flexible finance plans to expand its hosting infrastructure as client demand increases. Matthias Volz confirms: “At the moment, we are winning the trust of at least one new client for our cloud services per month and we expect the current trend for moving IT to the cloud to stay strong in the coming years.

“Being able to scale and upgrade our Lenovo infrastructure gradually gives us a real competitive edge. As part of the Lenovo Service Provider Program, we know that we always have easy access to the high-quality hardware we need to support client services as demand continues to grow.”

Crucially, by hosting client environments on Lenovo infrastructure in its own data center, OV-IT can provide complete transparency, giving clients peace of mind that their data is stored securely at a known location.

Andreas Volz concludes: “The quality of Lenovo technology and support is second to none. We haven’t experienced a single issue or server outage in recent months. After all these years working with Lenovo, we’re still so impressed with the service we receive. Furthermore, Lenovo is continuously working to become even better – production and supply chain optimization resulted in faster delivery times for servers and other components, helping us to be more agile when responding to client demands.”

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Recognizing that security concerns were holding many companies back from embracing cloud computing, IT service provider OV-IT launched its private cloud hosting services powered by Lenovo technology. With a modular architecture based on flexible, scalable IT infrastructure located in data centers in Germany, the company wins the trust of clients and delivers customized cloud services, reducing its clients’ IT costs.

OV-IT Oelker & Volz Computer GmbHBuilding up trust with flexible cloud services and total transparency

COMPUTER SERVICES

Solution components HardwareLenovo System x3550 M5 and

x3650 M5 with Intel® Xeon® E5 processor family

Lenovo Storage S3200Lenovo Storage V3700 V2

SoftwareIntrexxownCloudVMware