The Russian subdivision of the famous Japanese corporation Konica Minolta chose the CloudServer solution from ActiveCloud by Softline for placing its partners’ public services.
In 2012, Konica Minolta developed a number of public services to improve the efficiency of its engagement with the partner network in the Russian Federation. A prerequisite for such external services is reliable and failsafe deployment, with several infrastructure options considered for its implementation, including those based on Konica Minolta’s proprietary IT system.
Artem Staver, IT Manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Russia, comments on the company’s decision: “In 2012, we were faced with the challenge of launching new services for Konica Minolta’s partners in order to improve communications. Even at the concept phase, we were aware that hosting public projects on our own servers would cause a number of additional time-consuming tasks, such as purchasing additional equipment, commissioning, as well as procuring an Internet channel and 24/7 support. This option is not only time consuming, but also fails to guarantee that all stages of this work will be completed at the top level.”
One of the top priorities was to launch projects quickly on ready-made IT infrastructure with a good channel. This is why Konica Minolta started looking for options among the market leaders specializing in cloud solutions. Various Russian and U.S. cloud providers were considered, but not all of them met the requirements. In particular, U.S. providers had to be discarded due to long response times, as well as difficulties with entering into contracts and making payments.
Based upon the set of specifications, Konica Minolta chose CloudServer from ActiveCloud by Softline, mostly due to the following benefits:
- Its flexible system of backup and snapshots, which enables subtle backup configuration and full system restoration from snapshot;
- 24/7 technical support and financial guarantees of 99.95 % uptime/availability under an SLA;
- competitive total cost of using cloud services.
Artem Staver notes: “We thoroughly analyzed a large number of proposals from all of the leading specialized companies. We had to give up on foreign providers: despite their advantages, it was impossible to have an acceptable format of engagement, so we started looking for a domestic provider. A number of comparisons and tests showed that CloudServer definitely topped our short list. Such a crucial characteristic as fault tolerance turned out to be unprecedented. Besides, the reputation of ActiveCloud by Softline gives us confidence in the perfect results of our work at all stages of cooperation.”
Igor Korman, General Director of ActiveCloud (ActiveHost RU LLC), says: “The capabilities of the CloudServer service fully meet both key and additional requirements of our new customer’s projects. Our specialists are available 24 hours a day to assist in setting up and maintaining the system.”
