Hosting 365

The Irish Computer Society (ICS) has announced it has consolidated all its hosting requirements into a single agreement with Hosting365. The decision was made after a comprehensive assessment of hosting services in the Irish marketplace.

Tom O’Sullivan, professional services manager with ICS, was responsible for the market research. “Our previous hosting incumbent was not responsive to our needs and so we went to the market to find a replacement. Armed with a strict evaluation list, we soon found that Hosting365 met all our requirements and impressed us most with their professionalism.�

ICS wanted a robust hosting solution for its multiple websites that was also a local entity with local technical operations. “We wanted to be able to plug into an infrastructure in Ireland. Building strong relationships was also an issue and we felt we could only truly do this if our business partners were only a phonecall away.

“In addition to meeting our technical criteria in terms of products, security and hosting packages, we also liked Hosting365’s innovation and its approach to marketing. It’s a brand we like to be associated with,� says O’Sullivan.

Hosting365 was awarded the contract at the beginning of the summer. It provided a mixture of dedicated servers and shared hosting plans. Critical intranets are hosted on the dedicated server which runs an SQL database, while the many ICS websites are located in the shared hosting package.

Already a number of projects underway at the ICS have gone live with the new hosting solution. One of the first tasks was to port the test centres accredited with the ICS Skills division to a new dedicated server. Currently there are some 1100 test centres active in this programme which administers the ECDL training and examinations in Ireland. Already 300 centres have gone live with the remainder due to migrate to the new server next month.

Stephen McCarron, managing director of Hosting365 welcomes the opportunity to work with the ICS. “It is a feather in our cap to be chosen by this prestigious professional body,� he says. “In fact, it is a double honour since we have been vetted by some of the best IT people in the business and found to meet their exacting criteria.

“Our role is to ensure that the ICS can manage their many projects and initiatives with undue worries about their hosting options. For example, the elearning and ECDL side alone looks after 40,000 students every year and it is simply not an option for their many sites to be down for any length of period.�