ICC 4 IT Blog

ICC is pleased to announce that we have just secured a 24 hour contract for one of Europe’s largest Telecommunications companies, offering full support for their Alphaserver GS1280 platform, these machine’s are located oversea’s and has enabled us to expand our presence further into Europe outside of the British Isle’s. Original tenders for the contract took place in early 2006, and we were awarded the contract over another three major service provider’s. “obtaining this contract once more adds confidence to exisiting and future clients, who are looking for alternative young vibrant support organisations” commented MD Leon Wheeler.

HP enhances key attributes of OpenVMS with version 8.3 supporting the latest line of HP Integrity servers and AlphaServer systems. Now, you can achieve higher levels of performance and price/performance.

OpenVMS version 8.3 delivers even greater flexibility and investment protection along with lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and additional virtualization capabilities for HP Integrity servers. New clustering and data-shadowing functions further increase performance levels in disaster-tolerant environments, and additional security capabilities enhance the OpenVMS reputation for secure, rapid application delivery.

With OpenVMS version 8.3, you can choose to deploy HP Integrity servers as your business needs require. The mixed architecture clusters of Integrity servers and AlphaServer systems are fully supported, promoting the integration of HP Integrity servers into an OpenVMS environment at the pace directed by your business needs.

Licensing and service plans for OpenVMS on HP Integrity servers offer reduced complexity, increased cost-effectiveness, and greater flexibility. OpenVMS version 8.3 also supports the full line of HP AlphaServer systems.

Today, more than 1,000 applications are, or will soon be, available on OpenVMS on HP Integrity servers. And the number of available applications is continually growing. The enthusiastic base of HP OpenVMS partners are ready to help you deploy the applications that keep your business running smoothly.

HP OpenVMS is the operating environment of choice for many of the world’s most demanding enterprises because it delivers these no-compromise attributes every day, year after year:

• Up to 100% application availability
• Unyielding security
• Robust disaster tolerance
• Scalability to millions of users
• Steadfast reliability
• Ease of management
• Exceptional price/performance

ICC is pleased to announce that they have secured yet another service contract for one of the worlds largest pharmaceutical research companies namely Aptuit at their Edinburgh based site. The service support contract chosen by Aptuit covers their development Alphaserver Cluster.

ICC will be supporting Aptuit 24 hours a day 365 days a year with a 4 hour response level. “securing this contract once again adds another high profile client to our ever increasing support client list, our heavy investment into this area of our business with personnel and in-house facilities, ensures that any future customer, or current customer can be assured they are receiving market leading support without the the usual heavy costs associated with the manufacturers maintenance agreement that so many companies choose to adopt”

“At ICC we are trying to re-educate clients to realise that sticking with the manufacturers for support is not always the most reliable and cost effective way to run their I. T. platform, as companies have realised over the last few years that it is not always the best option to buy equipment direct from the manufacturer, we are confident that with the right attributed and procedures in place we can steer our clients in the direction of using our services, and increasing their cover but also reducing their annual costs”

The deadline for AlphaServer final orders is October 27, 2006 with HP Options and upgrades will be available for another year past that date, until November 2, 2007. HP wants every AlphaServer customer to have opportunity to make AlphaServer system final orders, if it’s appropriate.

HP recommends - for your AlphaServer environments
Generally, AlphaServer customers who plan to continue running their AlphaServer environments should refresh their plans to:
. Update to current operating environment versions where it’s practical, and cluster where 2 or more machines are running critical workloads, for optimal ROI.
. Consider AlphaServer GS1280 - a customer favourite for consolidation. Consolidation alone may dramatically improve the ROI for workloads distributed across multi-system AlphaServer environments.

Click here to view HP AlphaServer’s evolution/roadmap

HP OpenVMS v8.2 is a new release for both HP Integrity servers and AlphaServer systems. This new OpenVMS version enhances its key properties of security, scalability, availability, performance, and interoperability with UNIX.

The ability to deploy various generations of AlphaServer technology while incorporating Integrity servers offers bottom-line investment protection. The combination of HP Integrity servers and AlphaServer systems can enhance your computing environments by capitalizing on the economies of an industry-standard architecture while adding value through HP innovation.

You now have the choice of staying with the AlphaServer platform for years to come, or moving to Integrity servers. Your application investments are protected because the vast majority of Alpha-based OpenVMS applications need only be recompiled, relinked, and tested in order to run on Integrity servers. Moreover, mixed architecture clusters of HP Integrity servers and AlphaServer systems is fully supported, promoting the incorporation of Integrity servers into an OpenVMS environment when you determine it should be done.

OpenVMS v8.2 is now available for HP Integrity rx4640-8, rx2620-2, and rx1620-2 servers as well as for the entire family of AlphaServer systems. OpenVMS will be available on the full line of entry-level, mid-range, and high-end Integrity servers, including the HP Superdome Server, by the first half of 2006.

ICC has won the maintenance agreement with a large county police constabulary, covering their administration systems, which operate on Compaq AlphaServers running Tru64 Unix. The contract covers their systems 24 hours a day, 365 days per year on a 4 hour response.

“Obtaining this contract once again adds confidence and commitment from ICC on the service level agreement that has been chosen by our client, strengthening our out of hours support services. This will in turn allow us to tender for other 24 hour contracts because of having the facilities and personnel in place.”