Virtualisation provider to the Irish market IT Force reported today that it has seen a 35pc jump in virtualisation contracts in the past year, including €400,000 in new business from eight clients.
IT Force, a partner company of DataSolutions, said recent deals include €200,000 of Citrix virtualisation software and hardware, and €200,000 of associated support, implementation and service contracts.
New client acquisitions have come from across sectors, including government, public sector, engineering and professional services organisations, including a number of SMEs.
For many organisations, the virtualisation of servers and the subsequent reduction of server footprint is a critical step towards embracing organisation-wide use of cloud computing.
“Organisations seeking more flexible, people-centric computing that can be run at a lower overall cost, has been at the root of this growth,” Joe O’Reilly, sales director at IT Force, explained.
“Citrix virtualisation solutions enable easy migration to complete virtualised desktops, applications and data from any location, using any device. This enables more productive and mobile virtual work styles and helps IT adapt quickly to business changes, moves, growth, M&A and other initiatives.”
Hands-on virtualisation Demo Lab
Recent expansion led IT Force to make the move into a bigger, standalone premises in Dublin city centre in 2010. A key component for this move was availability of space to build a hands-on Demo Lab for virtualisation and related Citrix technologies. The lab will give organisations the opportunity to see server and desktop virtualisation in action in an environment that mirrors real life. IT Force has also invested in achieving the elite Citrix gold partner accreditation.
O’Reilly said, “Visitors to our Demo Lab will be able to leverage knowledge and hands-on experience of the competitive advantage available from optimising desktop and application performance and information security, at the lowest possible operating costs.
“The combination of this, with our recent gold partner accreditation, ensures that we will be in a position to minimise any risks associated with the implementation of new virtualisation technologies, while simultaneously providing a strong return on investment for our customers.”
Desktop virtualisation
Michael O’Hara, managing director, DataSolutions, said desktop virtualisation is one of the technologies that is creating a lot of excitement in the Irish market because of the efficiencies it brings to IT departments and organisations.
“Our solutions providers are seeing the majority of desktop virtualisation implementations delivering a return on investment (ROI) in just 12-18 months.
“IT Force’s extensive practical customer experience, accreditation and investment in the Demo Lab all serve to enable them to successfully deliver enterprise-wide desktop virtualisation using a selection of the virtualisation technologies that will best support different types of workers,” O’Hara said.
