GlassHouse Technologies, the global leader in vendor-independent storage services, today launched its Operational Support Services (OSS) practice to provide specialized data storage expertise for reducing companies’ risks from lost or stolen data.
Led by 20-year IT veteran Andy Norman, GlassHouse Operational Support Services provide medium- and large-sized companies with virtual teams of storage experts based in a remote storage services operations center. GlassHouse was ranked as one of the top three providers of storage services in Gartner’s “Market Trends, Storage Professional Services, North America, 2005” report by analyst Adam Couture[1].
Gartner’s report surveyed small and large storage professional service providers, asking each to name the second-best company in the market – assuming they would all consider themselves number one. The providers singled out GlassHouse for its “focus on storage consulting and independence,” according to the report. GlassHouse has deep experience managing multi-vendor environments experiencing exponential storage growth. The company’s OSS provides remote and on-site services that include:
- remote storage and backup support;
- managed backup and storage services delivered to meet service level agreements (SLAs);
- reporting of key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned to business requirements;
- intrinsic best practices (including ITIL);
- staff augmentation.
“Gartner recommends that companies deploy dedicated storage teams within their IT departments to deploy and manage best-in-class storage solutions,” said Gartner’s Adam Couture. “Unfortunately, many organizations simply don’t have the skills or the budget to build and maintain such capability. One solution for them is to ‘share’ the expertise of a service provider to deliver these capabilities for them.”
GlassHouse provides storage expertise
GlassHouse’s experience in many different storage environments, combined with its knowledge of storage issues and technology, mitigates risks and drives continuous improvement. GlassHouse Operational Support Services provide storage SLAs and cost efficiencies through services based on the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practices framework. GlassHouse Operational Support Services enable companies to shift from reactive to proactive management for preventing outages before they affect business performance. The dedicated operational storage expertise GlassHouse provides also cuts problem resolution times and reduces disruptions from changes in storage technology.
GlassHouse designed its Operational Support Services practice with flexibility and customer convenience in mind. Companies without dedicated storage management staff can partner with GlassHouse to support storage and backup procedures every day and around the clock. Companies with storage staff can use GlassHouse for consulting expertise, to supplement their staff during high-demand business hours; to support remote locations; or to provide overnight support. More than 50 companies in Europe and North America have partnered with GlassHouse to support part or all of their storage infrastructures. Clients range in size from mid-market to some of the largest companies in the world.
“Storage is a complex environment and skills are hard to come by. As a consequence of exponentially growing data volumes, many organizations are so busy dealing with day-to-day issues that they haven’t defined service levels and they have a lot of unknown risk,” said Practice Leader Andy Norman. “With GlassHouse Operational Support Services, you end up with defined services levels, mitigated risk and continuous improvement, all delivered in a best practices framework.”
About GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.
GlassHouse is the leading provider of independent services that help organizations solve the business problems of enterprise storage. From strategy through implementation, operations and customer support, GlassHouse partners with clients to achieve predictability and manageability in storage operations, enabling cost control, risk mitigation and increased service levels. GlassHouse clients include UBS, Exxon Mobil, Allianz Life, Virgin Mobile, and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.
[1] Couture, Adam W., “Market Trends, Storage Professional Services, North America, 2005” Gartner Inc., Sept. 2005.
