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When Auckland-based managed services provider Securecom decided on a new data centre for its Hamilton-based disaster recovery operation, a swift and secure migration was top of mind.
They managed both when they chose Datacom’s new Kapua (cloud in te reo Māori) data centre located on the Hamilton fringe, as well as greatly improving physical security and environmental sustainability.
Securecom is a New Zealand owned managed MSSP providing end to end IT services to New Zealand businesses across all sectors. It is aimed primarily at 50-500 seats and spans industries such as professional services, FMCG, transport and logistics, and healthcare. Customers include Liquorland, GAS, Epicurean Dairy, Mercy Hospice, and New Zealand Health Group.
Their vision is to be a trusted provider of ICT services that regularly exceeds expectations.
For 18 years, Securecom has run its own hosting environment offering primary services from Auckland, replicated to a Hamilton data centre for geo-redundant disaster recovery. The data centre landscape in New Zealand has undergone huge developments in recent times and Securecom wanted to ensure their data centre infrastructure was best in class.
“We wanted to ensure our Hamilton data centre infrastructure kept pace with the market changes,” says Securecom Head of Cloud Steve Snook. “There are other data centres in Hamilton, and we reviewed all the options available to us and in our view Datacom was the top in the region; the newest, with the best security and physical building infrastructure.”
“There is full perimeter fencing and CCTV, people onsite 24/7 and tight access control, all of which alleviates security concerns. We know they have good systems with regular maintenance to ensure the highest available uptime. If we need someone to eyeball equipment in one of our racks, it’s just a phone call. In the past we would have gotten someone to go down from Auckland.”
Knowing that Kapua is a tier three data centre, and that Datacom owns the land, provided the assurance that Securecom would have a long-term future in the new facility. Another benefit was sustainability.
“They are environmentally conscious, and the building is designed to be sustainable. For example, it only uses air conditioning twenty per cent of the time and the rest is through natural air flow. We also try to keep our environmental impact low, so that is a value-add for us when selling to our own customers."
Securecom has twenty customers subscribed to its DR services, including several which provide 24/7 customer centres. It had its own equipment and needed rack space.
“There was a lot of work to do before the move and we had a team of half a dozen working through planning and preparation. Datacom had to get racks ready, get us set up in their systems and work with our network providers so we could plug in our equipment. Things moved very fast. Within a week they had the racks set up and ready for our network providers. The backend and cabling were all ready for us to move in on time.”
On the weekend of the physical move, production workloads were migrated to Auckland and then the equipment was removed from the old datacentre, shipped to the new location, re-racked into the new datacentre, and powered up.
“The big thing for me was how responsive and helpful the Datacom team was. We weren’t the only ones moving in and at times there were people from multiple businesses in the data hall. Through it all Datacom was so customer friendly and were always coming over to check whether we needed anything."
