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December 2018 update from XMA Brexit Committee.

The latest XMA Brexit Committee meeting took place after the recent vote of ‘confidence’ in the Prime Minister. It is the Committee’s opinion that the likelihood of a ‘no deal’ Brexit increased and as such we are looking to firm up our position in relevant areas.

XMA’s objective is to minimise the effects of Brexit on trading and we are ensuring it does all it can to mitigate the impact of ‘no deal’. The agility and flexibility that XMA is renowned for will stand our business in good stead to help customers and vendors alike.

The British Chamber of Commerce has produced a thorough Brexit Checklist and we have found this a constructive way of enabling us to review all the no deal issues that may arise. The checklist can be found at https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/page/brexit/business-brexit-checklist and we recommend readers of this statement use it for their own preparedness. The checklist provides plenty of links to other official guidance. Your local Chamber of Commerce should also be of help for specific queries.

Workforce

XMA is taking steps to support its EU27 citizen employees – particularly those applying for the EU Settlement Scheme. This scheme is due to be open between March 2019 and 30 June 2021. Further information is available on the Government website, including an employer toolkit.

The future staffing of the business may be affected by UK immigration controls and travel between XMA established countries may also be affected. XMA will look to assist staff with their visa applications (if necessary).

Cross-Border Trade

XMA is ready with customs procedures and has expertise within the business to process imports and exports from/to the EU (as we do with non-EU countries today).

We are still investigating whether any goods are affected by tariffs (controlled goods), but it appears at this time that all IT and Consumer Electronics goods do not attract WTO tariffs. Appreciating that this is not guaranteed to continue, XMA will be training staff to ensure customs procedures can be met.

Potential delays

This is the Brexit Committee’s biggest concern given the general indication is that the British ports and customs processes are not yet adequately prepared for a no deal Brexit. A small delay will potentially cause huge delays to goods deliveries in both directions and non-perishable goods will not be prioritised. As a result, we are looking to take the following steps:

1. increase the size of XMA’s available storage capacity by working closely with our Tier 1 supply chain partners.
2. agree with vendors stocking models that will mitigate some aspects of the delays.
3. ensure that XMA has local configuration facilities in place to mitigate the, at times frustrating, channel tendency to configure a unique sku from the vendor (generally manufactured within the EU at present).
4. seeking legal advice to assess whether a no deal Brexit can be considered ‘Force Majeure’ when it comes to late delivery penalties/service level agreements. Clearly any delays will be out of XMA’s control however, if necessary, XMA is standing by to amend any contract where time of delivery is the essence.
5. working closely with our parent company (Westcoast) to investigate stocking capability within Westcoast’s Irish facility, where goods will be held as necessary to ensure a next day service to Irish customers continues. Westcoast’s courier to Ireland will increase its ability to ship via Northern Ireland where necessary.

Tariffs

XMA is reviewing the HS (international classification system) codes for all products we sell/distribute. It appears that there are no tariffs on most goods at present, although with current trade barriers being erected between the USA and China, continued vigilance will be required.

All import or export tariffs will be passed on through price increases from vendors or increases from XMA. This is in line with XMA’s existing terms and conditions of sale.

Rules of Origin

We understand that all XMA manufacturer suppliers are responsible for determining the source of their goods, yet we are writing to all to verify they are able to produce evidence upon request. As the manufacturer of Viglen products, XMA can evidence the source of all of our goods.

Other Customs points

XMA is not currently a member of an HMRC trusted trader scheme. We are assessing whether this would be advantageous, yet XMA is already fully conversant with Incoterms and Intrastat reporting.

VAT

Our parent company (Westcoast) has all necessary country specific VAT registrations to support customer purchases based all over the EU. Their in-house VAT experts are assessing any import VAT issues, yet most imports fall outside the thresholds.

Currency

XMA has a currency fluctuation policy and significant movements are passed on to the customer. We anticipate significant fluctuation in case of no deal, leading to significant and immediate price rises from vendors. XMA will ensure such rises are well communicated with as much notice as the vendor allows.

Intellectual Property

XMA hold UK Trademarks.

Contracts

A full review of customer contracts where EU law/EU geography is specified is underway.

EU Regulations

Notwithstanding EU regulations will cease to have direct effect on the UK once it leaves the EU, the UK has taken steps already to transpose most EU regulations into English law in any event (e.g. personal data or waste packaging). We therefore do not anticipate a material effect on the UK’s ability to comply with matters such as safety or transfer of personal data post departure from the EU.

Competition and State Aid

Changes made to competition regulation are unlikely to affect XMA or its business practices in the short term.

For any questions or queries contact our XMA Brexit committee at approvals@xma.co.uk

With the DfE challenging the tech industry to revolutionise education , it really was no surprise to see “teacher workload” identified as one of the “five key opportunities” to address.

Edtech can play a vital role in enhancing and streamlining work related processes. Whilst at the same time, helping improve student learning outcomes and increasing effective and efficient classroom productivity for both teachers and students.

Our role as edtech specialists, perfectly positions us to support our customers in addressing this challenge, by always putting teaching first and championing the use of technology.

Here’s our thoughts on how technology can bring efficiency to some of the common teaching struggles.

Marking and Feedback

Google Forms
Relieve the pressure of marking tests by hand with self-marking tool such as Google forms where online assessments are easily built, and the task of marking multiple type answer questions can be automated.

Apple Schoolwork
Whether the feedback is in the classroom or in the next lesson, with Apple’s Schoolwork app on iPad, you can easily distribute, collect and feedback on assignments and collaborate with students 1:1 from anywhere – in real time. And when using Pages, Numbers or Keynote, you can instantly add written or verbal feedback directly to their work.

Microsoft Teams
Using Microsoft Teams, you can create, grade and feedback on assignments using familiar apps such as Class Notebook, and send back direct to each student.

Managing homework

Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams creates a digital hub that brings conversations, content, assignments, and apps together – all from a single experience in Office 365 Education.

Google Classroom
With Googles Classroom, you can manage assignments and communicate with students and their guardians from one convenient place and because Classroom integrates with other Google tools, you can instantly refresh curriculum with integrated education apps.

Handouts
Using Apples Handouts in the School Work app, you can send anything from announcements to assignments, in almost any format; including web links, PDFs or even links to activities within apps. Handouts can be sent to the entire class or one to one, ready for your students to instantly view and keep on track of actions they need to complete.

Collaboration

Microsoft Teams
Create a collaborative classroom with Microsoft Teams by keeping everything you need in one place with Class Notebook, Office apps and education apps, and engage students with rich conversations, video, and fun content. You can also streamline staff communication on school-wide initiatives using custom Staff Notebooks and bring teams together in any meeting with HD video, VoIP, and dial-in audio conferencing options.

G Suite for Education
G Suite for Education provides a suite of productivity tools to help students and teachers interact seamlessly and securely across devices. Teachers can easily create classes, distribute assignments and send feedback, anytime, anywhere and from any device with G Suite for Education.

Classroom
The Classroom app allows control over every iPad and Mac in class, so you can guide students through lessons and keep them engaged. You can also send and receive files with the entire class or one to one using AirDrop or present work on the big screen.

We are here to help you sail through your day

It’s not surprising that the stress of managing the teaching workload, is one of the main causes of high staff attrition rates and teacher shortages. Technology could help towards alleviating and streamlining some of these pressures.

Our team are experienced in consulting schools through these challenges. Get in touch today as we could help you find that work-life balance you’ve been hoping for!

Attending BETT 2019? We will be there in full force ready to help you along your digital transformation journey. For the opportunity to meet with one our specialists, or simply find out more around what we have on offer at the show see here. 

Book a meeting

The After School club

An exclusive event for school leaders, The After School Club is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how implementing technology and introducing it into your curriculum can be beneficial, cost effective and sustainable. If you plan on attending BETT and are interested in an Apple solution, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more. Find out more around the agenda and Register for your FREE place here.

Find out more

With many Schools, Universities and Education Establishments needing to provide fast, effective systems, there is pressure on the budgets to upgrade their technology. The good news is Intel have ‘broken the rules’ of previous system memory and introduced breakthrough technology  that allows users to take advantage of unprecedented responsiveness and amazing performance.

When used with HDD, Intel Optane memory offers SSD like PC experience that delivers high speed and responsiveness without compromising on storage capacity. The cost for Intel Optane starts from around £37 which means that you can add an accelerator to your system without the high expense of SSD, especially if you need high capacity storage. Optane is compatible with Intel 7th Gen technology motherboards/processors and later, with so many different types of users that can benefit from this.

What is Intel® Optane™?

Available in 16GB or 32GB modules which simply ‘slot’ into your motherboard, Intel Optane acts as an accelerator for your system. It works with a unique combination of 3D XPoint memory media with Intel’s advanced system memory controller, interface hardware, and software IP. What does this mean?  It means a smart and adaptable system accelerator that adjusts to your computing tasks — making everything you do faster, smoother, and easier. The intelligent software automatically learns your computing behaviours to accelerate frequent tasks and customise your computer experience, meaning faster searching, faster loading, and a faster system.

How does it benefit me?

Performance gains of upto 28% Faster overall system performance, upto 14x Faster hard drive access, and upto 2x faster everyday task responsiveness

Operational excellence with 3d XPoint Technology gives better endurance and faster than previous NAND Memory.

Predictability where Intel Optane learns to prioritise your files accessed regularly to have them available for you when you need them.

Fast SSD like transfer interface to rival SSD storage. Why not look at options to increase your storage capacity with HDD for lower cost than SSD.

How do I buy?

The best way to upgrade to Intel Optane is to speak to one of our specialists who can talk to you more about the benefits and explain the next steps. If however you want to buy Optane without speaking to our team you can make a purchase via the XMA store.

store.xma.co.uk

Contact us on 0115 846 4000 or use the contact form below to get in touch today

Apple Augmented Reality in your classroom

Mobile technology is providing new opportunities for learning in the classroom and teachers now have access to resources that can further enhance the learning experience. Alongside a teacher’s expertise in igniting curiosity and stimulating great questions, Augmented Reality (AR) can alter the learning environment and allow children to explore opportunities that weren’t previously possible.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to walk alongside dinosaurs?

Maybe you always struggled in science lessons when it came to learning about the human body?

Perhaps things would have been easier if you could have seen the human body in every detail, and see for yourself how all joints fit together.

AR in the classroom allows students to visualise what they cannot immediately see. Teachers now have the capability to bring this concept to life, and deliver some of the most inspiring lessons that pupils will ever experience.

XMA want to provide you with some inspiration for AR in the classroom, because there is a world out there ready to be explored – and it can all happen right there in the classroom!
 
Here are our favourite apps which can easily be incorporated into lesson plans:

Augmented Reality apps

My Very Hungry Caterpillar

Ideal for: early primary school
Requires: iOS 11.0 or later
This is a 3D interactive app, suited to early primary years. This is the perfect way to start introducing younger pupils to the world of AR and technology.
My Very Hungry Caterpillar teaches them the vital skills of responsibility; the children will need to nurture the caterpillar by feeding it and looking it after through every stage of growth until it turns into a butterfly.
This app will also teach them about evolution of growth; they will witness the caterpillar growing bigger and bigger until it turns into a beautiful butterfly.
 

Froggipedia

Ideal for: secondary school
Requires: iOS 11.0 or later
This apps provides new ways in bringing anatomy to life in your biology lessons, exploring intricate anatomical systems of a frog and its life cycle.
This app will help students to understand how a single celled egg can turn into a tadpole, then into a froglet and eventually to a full grown frog. By using this app, it means that there’s no need to physically dissect a frog in order to understand the full structure. This is interactive learning at its finest!

If you like this Augmented Reality app – try out ‘Brainapse’:
This is the same concept as Froggipedia, only this time with the human brain. Use this interactive app to engage your classroom in the functions of the human skull and brain. You can teach them about the different brain cells, experience how the brain communicates with the five senses and understand the timeline of the human brain evolution.
 

Complete Anatomy 2019

Ideal for: secondary school
Requires: iOS device
Used by 200 of the world’s top universities, this app is regarded as one of the worlds most accurate and advanced 3D anatomy apps.
This app includes a betting and dissectible human heart in 3D – there is no better way for your pupils to get up close and hands-on with the human anatomy. This app clearly explains and demonstrates pain and growth simulation and the different functions of the human body. Welcome to the future of science lessons.

Want to learn more about how to use iPad and apps in the classroom?
Get in touch with our team today

In the 25th year of the CRN Channel Awards, it is with immense pride that we officially announce XMA has been named Public Sector VAR of the Year for the 2nd year running.

Ian Cunningham, Director of Sales & Marketing at XMA, who accepted the awards with the rest of the XMA Board commented “‘The level of competition this year was extremely tough and we were up against a range of industry peers who we admire and respect and who we knew would be formidable opponents, so winning against them makes it even more special.

I am beyond delighted XMA have been named CRN’s Public Sector VAR of the Year, proving that all of the hard work and determination across our company this year from top to bottom has really made a difference and is now publicly recognised.  The proposals to win these awards told the story of our people and the tremendous service they have provided our customers across the year, but also it is a story of transformation and change in our company. We are being rewarded for investing in our people, evolving our systems and processes, to ultimately give our customers best in class solutions, products and services at the right time, right price and with fantastic service and relationships driven by our staff.

I’d like to extend a huge thank you not just to our staff, but to all our customers, partners and associates without whom we could not have reached such a fantastic milestone.  And the good news – we are by no means finished.

Success breeds growth and XMA are growing strongly for the future.”

One team, one dream

We are tremendously proud of our achievements over the past 12 months of which much is credit to our people who continue to go the extra mile. They are critical to our success and we recognised this through the introduction of a number of training and development programmes to help them reach their full potential.

Our investment in digitally transforming our business has enabled the development and implementation of new systems, helping streamline how we work and service our customers.

Working together with one common goal, we have achieved huge growth across our Corporate, Public Sector and Ecommerce business, achieving an extended route to market and an empowered workforce.

XMA would like to extend a huge congratulations to all the finalists and winners at this year’s CRN Channel Awards. We are proud to be part of such an exciting and innovative industry and look forward to continuing to exceed expectations by delivering the best IT solutions to our customers throughout 2019.

With the unveiling of the 2018 budget last week, it was announced that the government would be investing an additional £400m into schools across England and Wales.

This additional investment was described as giving schools the extra budget for “the odd little piece of kit that they need*” – more specifically, “whiteboards and a couple of computers*”. This will be a one off capital payment direct to schools, averaging £10k per primary and £50k per secondary school.

The government have experienced a huge backlash across the country, with Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, saying “It is a sign of the government’s priorities that it is spending more on fixing potholes than on fixing the school funding crisis.”**

We agree that it is a small investment, and it certainly isn’t enough to help schools stretch to all the necessities they need. However, with our help we can make that additional budget go a lot further than just “a few little extras”. Our experience in doing more with less has supported schools in meeting their goals despite restricted budgets. Innovative technology solutions needn’t cost the earth. They just require careful planning, consideration and future proofing.

We pride ourselves in taking a consultative approach, by taking the time to understand your environment, challenges you currently face, and what your objectives are as a school.

Our specialist Schools team are ready to help you do a little extra with your “little extras”. Get in touch with us today so we can help your budget stretch further.

If you would like a member of our Schools team to contact you to discuss doing a little extra with “Little Extras”, please complete the fields below:

*The Guardian, 2018

** Schools Week, 2018

Atrium Studio School is Devon’s first school that specialises in the Built Environment. Atrium offers their students a contemporary education in areas including Architecture, Structural Engineering and Ecology alongside traditional GCSEs such as Triple Science, English Literature and Language and Maths.

The Studio School wanted to enhance their envisioned modern technology environment, and support their extensive syllabus by making ICT an integral part of learning. In addition, Atrium needed facilities that could support teachers and the Senior Leadership Team to become flexible and stimulating educators.

XMA won Atrium’s contract through an extensively detailed design, supply, delivery, install, testing and commissioning of the entire ICT infrastructure. By working closely with Atrium, XMA was able to successfully provide the School with a high quality service, state-of-the-art devices and support.

Atrium Studio School recognised the Value Added offering from XMA designed to support Education Impact. XMA’s offer included employer engagement to help contextualise and enrich the curriculum for their students, who benefit from the Studio School model’s blend of academic and vocational education.

Samantha Morcumb, Assistant Principal at the Studio School explains,

“Our students benefit from regular employer visits and employer led projects.
These are principally within the construction industry but our students wish to benefit from a broad understanding of industry and commerce. XMA interests us as an employer partner because they specialise in ICT for new-build schools and work closely with architects, mechanical, electrical and building contractors to create a great built environment.”

Samantha continues,

“In December 2016, we wanted our Year 9 and Year 10 students to gain insight and practical experience in the field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, so we invited XMA and parent company Westcoast to come in and meet our students.

They were delighted to support and the Group’s Chief Operations Officer Andy Newberry and Guy Bates, STEM Ambassador volunteered to run a workshop. They suggested an overview of the businesses, logistics and supply chain career opportunities and a set of practical activities, so that our students got a real feel for the roles and skills involved in running efficient and environmentally considerate logistics services on a global scale.”

Luke, a Year 10 student with an interest in IT, supported XMA in running the activities with Year 9,

“Students learned about Westcoast and XMA’s supply chain, specifically for the UK assembly of Viglen PCs, workstations and servers. We then formed teams representing source countries, transportation and assembly. We had PC parts and had to bring them together using the transport options provided considering time, cost and environmental factors.

We learned how to assemble a PC, although I have personally done this before, so I coached the Y9s. We also learned that the UK is the world leader in cardboard box manufacture!

We use Viglen Omnino All-In-One PCs here at Atrium, so it was great to learn about how the business works that makes them.”

Sam Westaway, 3D Art and Design Teacher supported the day with Samantha,

“We worked with XMA prior to the day to ensure that the taught element and practical exercises helped embed life skills including critical thinking, communication and teamwork. Working with Andy and Guy of XMA helped us do that, because they were able to illustrate how important these skills are in their business, so they can serve their clients effectively and manage an innovative, ethical and environmentally considerate operation.”

Andy Newberry, Chief Operations Officer, Westcoast Ltd comments,

“We knew this was a great school and so different from my own school experience. It was terrific to experience the Studio School approach first hand and see the enthusiasm of their students to learn about careers and routes to university.”

Guy Bates, XMA Business Development Director and STEM Ambassador says,

“Having been a part of the original project team during the bid, design and implementation of the IT solution, it was wonderful to see and use the ICT solution we and the School designed together. Anyone who has presented to and collaborated with a large audience will know that you really want the ICT to work first time, so working with XMA partner schools in this way gives a great insight into the ease of use and functionality of the Solution, when you depend on it in front of a group of teenagers!”

Guy continues,

“It is particularly exciting to see how the Atrium ICT Solution supports Project Based Learning, together with flexible spaces at the School, which are designed to enable whole year group, whole class, group, paired and individual learning. It must be working well! Activities were a joy to deliver and the hospitality and attitudes of the students and staff were amazing!”

HPE Synergy is the world’s first truly Composable Infrastructure and today’s new hybrid IT engine. Synergy enables you to maintain the structure and security of traditional IT, whilst still having flexibility and speed for new applications.

1. Cloud-like speed Composable Infrastructure enables DevOps teams to spin up new services in minutes to get new experiences into customers’ hands faster, delivering cloud-like speed from your own secure datacentre.	2. Single platform Run traditional applications and cloud-native apps from a single platform that supports everything from bare-metal deployment to virtual machines and containers. This allows IT to align behind a single platform to reduce datacentre complexity and cost.
3. Software-defined Intelligent software recognises and automatically integrates compute, storage, and fabric into resource pools that can be aggregated and disaggregated to meet the needs of any application. Template-driven provisioning helps ensure policy compliance and reduces risk exposure.	4. Operational efficiency Remove the need to stand up separate siloed environments for different applications. Automated provisioning via templates and a unified API enables application infrastructure provisioning in minutes instead of days, bringing cloud-giant efficiency to your datacentre.
5. Continuous development Developers can request exactly the amount of compute, storage, and networking fabric their applications need, directly from code. The unified API aggregates physical resources just like virtual and public-cloud resources, giving developers true infrastructure-as-code capabilities.	6. Fluid IT Accelerate application development by giving DevOps teams more control over their environments. Fluid resource pools allow developers to execute non-disruptive changes and to continuously refine applications to meet customer needs as they arise.
7. IT economics Template-driven provisioning and non-disruptive updates mean IT spends less time maintaining infrastructure, reducing labour costs. Fluid pools of resources that can be aggregated on demand increase utilisation and reduce over-provisioning and stranded capacity.	8. Competitive advantages Bridging the performance and control of dedicated infrastructure with the flexibility of the cloud allows lines-of-business to accelerate delivery of new customer experiences and revenue opportunities to stay ahead of the competition.
9. Future-proofed datacentre Be ready for whatever the future might bring with a scalable and extendable infrastructure and robust partner ecosystem that provides a firm foundation for today’s hybrid IT and the capacity and flexibility to take future innovations in stride.	10. Seamless evolution Starting with as little as a half-rack of gear, Composable Infrastructure can be deployed easily and incrementally, side-by-side with your existing infrastructure. Deploy it as part of your standard refresh cycle to grow your capabilities at a pace that makes sense for your business.

If you would like to learn more about any of the technologies mentioned or discuss other ideas for revolutionising your infrastructure, our team are on hand to help. Contact us at info@xma.co.uk or call 0115 846 4000. Alternatively, you can complete our contact form below.

The uniforms are ironed, the shoes are polished and parents are breathing a small sigh of relief – the summer holidays are over and it’s time to get back to business!

As the new academic year commences, it brings with it a fresh beginning, a blank canvas for new opportunities and endless possibilities. It’s an exciting time as students embark on the next chapter in their educational journey.

But it’s an exciting time for us too! There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing our young learners achieve their dreams, especially now that so much more is possible through the innovative application of IT.

Technology has opened up a whole new world for learning. Students have flexibility over what mediums they can learn with, they have immediate access to information and are no longer restricted to the classroom.

Exciting new technologies are emerging, breaking down the boundaries of traditional learning and enriching the educational experience. With so many new innovations designed to make learning more fun, we have narrowed down the selection to a few of our favourites…

3D Print

Building the vision into a tangible outcome
Print no longer means “Print”! Sitting perfectly within STEAM curricula, 3D print provides a truly creative and immersive learning environment. By producing tangible results, students are instantly engaged, developing a real motivation to learn. This hands-on-learning approach brings complex concepts to life and 3D print helps bridge the gap between traditional classroom concepts and reality.

Virtual Reality

Immerse learners in a simulated learning environment
Virtual Reality (VR) was a thing of the future but now it’s here and making waves through the education sector by changing the way educational content is delivered, allowing users to interact with it within a virtual world.

Students can explore a subject in detail, without having to read up about it. They can develop an understanding of how things work in a more practical environment. And they can scale learning experiences, making them more engaging and dynamic.

Microsoft Surface Go

Effortless 2:1 computing
The latest addition to the Surface family! The device is a 10-inch screen and 3:2 display with Microsoft claiming it is the ‘smallest, lightest and most affordable Surface yet’. It’s revolutionary 2:1 model enables the mobility of a tablet with the performance of a laptop and includes enhanced lesson customisation with Office 365 and seamless tools like Microsoft Teams enable assignment creation, progress tracker.

Sphero

Teaching students to code
We love this little guy! Sphero is an app-enabled robot which uses basic code to programme its actions – whether that be jumping, moving in a particular direction, dancing or changing colour. With its own Edu App providing heaps of collaborative STEAM activities such as Draw & Drive to learn real JavaScript, Sphero captures and nurture imaginations instantly.

Spongy Elephant

Award winning bite-sized training for schools and trusts
Ok, so it’s not exactly tech but we still see Spongy Elephant having a huge presence in ed this term! Put simply, Spongy Elephant provides your staff with bite-size learning bursts that are easy-to-access, easy-to-consume and easy-to-implement when they need them, rather than have them scheduled for school INSET sessions and offsite formal training.

We are helping schools similar to yours, to introduce the latest and greatest tech to their classrooms, giving them the confidence and reassurance that they are providing their students with the best learning experience possible.

If you would like to learn more about any of the technologies mentioned or discuss other ideas for revolutionising your classroom, our Education team are on hand to help.

There are two rules when it comes to modernising your datacentre but what it boils down to is focusing on a good outcome.

Rule #1: Keep it simple

When technology needs an update, some organisations choose to modernise over time, following the same problem-by-problem approach they used to build the original data centre. This piecemeal approach is complex and can be agonisingly slow. What’s worse, all that time and effort won’t necessarily lead to a better end product or even lower costs.

Instead of focusing on daily problems that arise, hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) lets you focus on the outcome: a simpler data centre that’s cost-effective and easy to manage. HCI takes a building block approach to architecture, consolidating compute, storage, network switching, replication, and backup in a single integrated system. The consolidation of these IT functions onto virtualized hardware can greatly simplify environments that have been divided by siloed point solutions.

VM-centric HCI systems are also simple for IT administrators to manage, and require much less data centre space than traditional IT devices.

Rule #2: Don’t overspend

Hyperconvergence requires some upfront investment, but it can deliver a huge return on that investment. In this study based on research with real world customers, Forrester Consulting found that HCI reduces TCO by 69% on average compared to traditional IT. Converging the entire IT stack – firmware, hypervisor, and data virtualisation software – has additional advantages, according to that same study. Data centre footprint can be reduced 10:1, backups and disaster recovery become simple and straightforward, and upgrades are managed for the whole stack. The most efficient solutions also free up significant staff time, boosting the economic benefits even further. IDC reports an 81% increase in time available to focus on new projects as a direct result of hyperconverged deployment.

Our data centre solutions guarantee high availability, reliability and security for your infrastructure

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