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Case Study - Trackplot

Andrew Ogilvie

on March 19, 2013

Trackplot Ltd provides a range of easy to use online tools to help
businesses keep staff safe, assets secure and to manage them effectively.

Trackplot's new Portal uses advanced web based mapping technology,
integrated with the latest GPS devices, so customers can locate and
manage staff and assets as and when they want.

These 24/7 services assist employers to safeguard their lone workers and
comply with HSE regulations. People working alone outdoors are
particularly vulnerable, often working outwith mobile phone networks.
The Trackplot Portal allows them to communicate and their position to be
pinpointed at regular intervals. Workers using this system include
surveyors, bridge inspectors, ecologists, forestry workers and people
working on landed estates.

The Trackplot Portal can also be used to track assets, from vehicles or
high value goods such as trailers and tractors to livestock, for
logistical or operational reasons. The Portal has many applications - to
monitor the location of equipment and machinery; to demonstrate usage in
order to fulfil contracts; to monitor where livestock is grazing to
assess the utilisation of fields and the types of vegetation preferred;
to set geo-fences to ensure assets stay within set boundaries.

Agriplot, developed by Trackplot, provides bespoke mapping functionality
to allow farmers to streamline their annual Integrated Administration
Control System submissions to the Scottish Government. These submissions
detail information on their land and livestock. Agriplot can be used
all year round by farmers to assess plans as they are put into practice,
review and evaluate decisions having all the mapping information needed
at their fingertips.

Trackplot has been a client of Xtraordinary Hosting since 2010 utilising
a dedicated server and two virtual servers.

Gert Riemersma, Technical Director of Trackplot, said: "Trackplot is a
cloud-based operation, hosting the Trackplot Portal. With Xtraordinary
we don't have to worry about the set up and maintenance of servers,
allowing us to focus on our business.

"Reliable hosting is essential for our business - we cannot offer our
services without it. In particular, lone workers around the UK are
monitored with our Portal and it is critical that the service is
continuous 24/7. If employees are overdue or issue an alert, then the
Portal will send email and SMS messages to the lone worker's contacts to
notify them of this.

"We are pleased with the service we receive from Xtraordinary because,
to put it simply, it just works. We get high uptime and, if there is any
planned maintenance, Xtraordinary give us plenty of advance warning.
This is crucial as we provide mission critical systems for our clients.
Xtraordinary's response to queries is good and any issues are fixed in a
prompt manner."

Case Study - Policy Services

Andrew Ogilvie

on March 19, 2013

Policy Services is an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) company based in Grangemouth in Scotland.

The company provide specialist financial planning services to the clients of over 1,000 professional introducers, who range from single IFAs to large financial services organisations.

In order to cope with a fast-changing marketplace and changes in legislation, many of these IFAs are being forced to restructure or refocus aspects of their business.

These advisers delegate elements of their client care to Policy Services, because they have chosen to change their advisory status, or have become deregulated in an advice area or simply because they need to focus on a specific sector of the market.

Clients administer their account via Policy Services online application, Mypsaccount. The service is available around the clock, providing a paperless customer management system, with the option of accessing the service from a mobile device.

Xtraordinary have been providing Policy Services' hosting provider since 2005. At present, Policy Services relies on Xtraordinary to provide two dedicated servers and its Zimbra-powered email service. In addition, Xtraordinary also provide a number of SSL certificates, and supply domain names for Policy Services' products on an ad hoc basis.

Kevin Dorrian, Head of IT at Policy Services, said: "We are an internet-based company so having maximum uptime is absolutely critical to our business, and the service from Xtraordinary has been excellent in that regard."

During their time with Xtraordinary other hosting companies have courted Policy Services, but Kevin feels they have never had any reason to change their provider. He attributes this largely to the great customer service his firm receives from Xtraordinary.

Kevin adds: "On the rare occasions we might have a problem we will simply pick up the phone to the helpdesk. Andrew and Logan are both fantastic, but no matter who we speak to all the team at Xtraordinary are knowledgeable and helpful."

Case Study - Basingstoke College of Technology

Andrew Ogilvie

on January 28, 2013

Basingstoke College of Technology is a catalyst for bright minds, preparing them for a wide choice of careers including Art & Design, Automotive Technologies and Sport. Allowing students access to the best technological resources is an essential part of their education at the College. With a strong focus on vocational education, Basingstoke College puts its students at the centre of everything it does, which includes providing them with a comprehensive website featuring detailed information on its variety of courses.

The Basingstoke College website was originally hosted on a shared hosting platform, which proved to be frustrating for the College's IT team.

Rob Smith, Website Co-ordinator at Basingstoke College, explains: "As we were on a shared platform, we didn't have the flexibility to change things as we saw fit, which was quite limiting. We wanted to provide the students with the best possible website we could, which meant seeking out a more capable host who could provide a dedicated Windows server for us to fully customise. As well as certain technical requirements, we needed an Internet host who could provide good bandwidth and support... all, of course, at a reasonable price. We found a hosting company that treated us the same way we treat our students, Xtraordinary Hosting.

"Xtraordinary Hosting took our needs seriously, and helped us make the right decisions, which opened up a pathway to a more productive future."

While Basingstoke College has continued to develop its buildings and facilities to meet its own rigorous standards, Xtraordinary Hosting has managed the growth and development of Basingstoke's hosting services. Two years ago, Basingstoke College consulted with Xtraordinary Hosting about the future needs of its website, and it was agreed to migrate Basingstoke College's services to Windows Virtual Server.

With over seven years experience of hosting Windows Virtual Server, and having already migrated many customers to the cloud, Xtraordinary Hosting made the process simple and straightforward for the College. It also gave them the backups and security they were looking for, and the flexibility to expand the service quickly to meet demand.

Rob adds: "My favourite thing about Xtraordinary Hosting is the proactive product support. Every now and then, I receive a few emails notifying me of errors, basically letting me know things are going on before even I know. The people at Xtraordinary Hosting are very friendly and constantly ensure everything is running smoothly."

Case Study - Schoolcomms

Andrew Ogilvie

on January 28, 2013

Schoolcomms is an education software management company, which helps transform the vital relationship between schools, parents and young people.

The Schoolcomms service is used by thousands of primary and secondary schools across the UK and around the world, providing text and email alerts for parents, praise postcards (eCards), timetables and exam notifications and a range of other invaluable communications services.

Schoolcomms was founded in 2003 and has used Xtraordinary Hosting from the very start. It remains one of Xtraordinary's oldest and most valued customers to this day.

A crucial element of the Schoolcomms service is resilience, as text and email communications need to be available at all times, both in and out of school. Users rely on the service in all weathers and locations, whether sending a message from a snowy school playing field or whilst on a school trip overseas.

Ian Brownbill of Schoolcomms says: "In the nine years we have been with Xtraordinary Hosting I can count the number of outages we have had on less than the fingers of one hand. When you think about it that is incredible."

With growing demand for their services, Schoolcomms finds Xtraordinary's private cloud solution gives them the scalability their business needs.

Ian adds, "There is no need to install different operating systems on physical machines, and we have the ability to increase our number of virtual machines almost instantly. We also take advantage of the secure offsite backup service, which is very important as we need our data protected from any technical or environmental risks."

Most importantly, the relationship with Schoolcomms has endured because of Xtraordinary's commitment to giving its customers exceptionally responsive, proactive and friendly customer support.

Ian adds: "We are very happy with the services we receive. Xtraordinary will often foresee problems before they arise, and on the rare occasion there is an issue they go the extra mile to help us find a solution.

Case Study - Counter Editions

Andrew Ogilvie

on January 28, 2013

Counter Editions is a gallery founded in 2000, which sells limited edition, high quality art prints by many of the world's leading contemporary artists, including five Turner Prize winners. Counter works in close collaboration with artists, including Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Sam Taylor-Wood, Mario Testino and Jake and Dinos Chapman, to produce exclusive editions of their work.

Counter Editions is now the UK's leading retail website for contemporary art. At the heart of Counter's online sales activity is a Magento eCommerce platform installed and maintained by Xtraordinary Hosting.

When Counter was selected to produce and retail special editions based around the 2012 London Olympics, they turned to Xtraordinary to provide them with a website, which could handle Olympian levels of traffic.

The solution suggested by the Xtraordinary team involved a 'cache server', powered by Varnish Cache software, sitting in front of a Magento server. While large numbers of online visitors browsed the site content and pictures, which was mainly static content, a powerful dedicated Magento server handled the actual ordering process, from product selection to checkout.

This solution delivered the dynamic page responses required and meant that even when there were dramatic spikes in web traffic - with some collectors and dealers frantically placing orders simultaneously during the first hour of the Olympic collection's launch - the website was able to function without a hitch.

Without the cache server in place the number of servers required to cope with the increased traffic would have been tenfold. In the end, two high-performance HP DL380 servers provided all the computing power required. The cache server solution was provided as a customised service to cope with the two or three months of peak activity anticipated around the launch.

Claire Ryan, Project Manager at Counter Editions, said: "We don't have a dedicated IT team in-house, so I normally deal with issues relating to our website. I don't have a tech background, but Xtraordinary have shown great compassion, patience and understanding when explaining complex technical issues. We would definitely use Xtraordinary to provide a similar service in the future, and I would recommend them to anyone looking for eCommerce hosting."

Case Study - Art Retail Network

Andrew Ogilvie

on January 28, 2013

The premise behind the Art Retail Network is deceptively simple. As works of art normally exist singularly, and high street galleries often have a geographical limit on potential buyers, why not harness the power of the Internet to share artworks between galleries and make it easier to find potential buyers? However, there were problems with this approach. Buyers often prefer to inspect the works close up before they buy, for emotional, financial and aesthetic reasons. The network was also conscious of not wanting to undermine high street galleries, by allowing the public to bypass galleries and purchase works online.

Art Retail Networks solved the problem by helping galleries source work from each other, meaning they never lose a sale even if a potential buyer is looking for something which is not in their current collection. Art can often then be shared between galleries for customers to view, and if a transaction is made a deal is agreed between the two parties. If, for any reason, no sale takes place the artwork is simply returned.

To make the process even simpler the Network developed Gallery-Link, a cloud-based marketplace, which means all members access the same resources, without the need to log-in, or install and update software. The system also allows galleries to harness tablets and other devices to wow their customers, and to use social media to connect with other galleries, artists and suppliers in real-time, saving a huge amount of time checking stock availability. All of which creates an even more powerful and effective gallery network.

The backbone of Gallery-Link is a Virtual Server provided by Xtraordinary Hosting. The reliability of the Virtual Server is vital to Art Retail Networks' business, as galleries globally access Gallery-Link around the clock. Xtraordinary also supply a control panel for the Virtual Server, which gives the Art Retail Network complete administrative control over security, firewalls and user access.

Jamie McCallum, Chief Executive of Art Retail Network, said: "The team at Xtraordinary are very responsive, and they often go outwith their remit to help tackle any technical issues we might be facing, although I cannot think of a single technical problem we have had, on their side, since we started using them."

Case Study - Sales Agility

Andrew Ogilvie

on November 28, 2012

Sales Agility are a Sugar CRM consultancy. Sugar is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, which allows companies to communicate with customers, track new business leads and share sales data. Sugar is a web-based solution, which can run via their website or the cloud. It is open-source, which means companies can customise and adapt the service to meet their needs.

Sales Agility's previous experience of hosting was expensive, but delivered a very low performance. Having been persuaded to upgrade to a larger setup by the same provider, they still found the service to be poor.

Xtraordinary Hosting began by auditing their existing hosting setup and proposed a new server with a different configuration, which would not only considerably improve the performance but also provide a better fit for their business in the future. Xtraordinary provisioned a new server and helped Sales Agility configure it to best suit their needs. Sales Agility subsequently migrated all their sites onto a server provided by Xtraordinary Hosting, which now also provides offsite backups for their networks.

Greg Soper, Managing Director of Sales Agility, comments: "The server is super-fast... and we're paying half the price for a vastly superior service."

Case Study - Prendo

Andrew Ogilvie

on November 26, 2012

Making mistakes is an inevitable part of the learning process, but in the fields of aviation and medicine, proper training is required to avoid fatal mistakes. This is why doctors and pilots practice certain skills using simulations, where errors can be made without real-world repercussions.

Prendo applies the same principles to the field of management and has developed simulations that recreate a variety of business environments; allowing users to practice their management skills without any business risk. In the same way a pilot trains using a flight simulator, Prendo's clients can clearly identify mistakes made in simulations to avoid making costly and time-consuming mistakes. Prendo takes into account the financial, technical, and most importantly the human variables that are involved in organisational decisions. The company's simulations have been created over years of working with the world's most successful companies and developed by communicating with professors teaching at top business schools. Prendo expects the same level of communication and professionalism from an Internet host.

Alastair Giffin, Head of Research & Development at Prendo explains: "Our simulations are constantly improving based on feedback we receive from users and advice from professors at the world's top universities. It is important for us to deliver software updates to all our users in a way that doesn't interrupt their service. For updates to happen seamlessly, it is essential that our Internet hosting partner stay in close communication to ensure the constant updates are handled properly. Unfortunately, our previous Internet host was extremely unresponsive and provided just an average level of service, which took a toll on our customers' satisfaction. It soon became clear that we needed to find a new Internet host that could meet all our hosting needs."

After comparing some of the UK's top providers, Prendo settled on Xtraordinary Hosting. Prendo's need for resilience and maximum uptime was matched by the geographic dispersion of Xtraordinary's servers. Prendo currently houses data in two Edinburgh servers and another two in London. Dispersing data across different locations minimises network downtime because if an issue occurs in one server, the remaining data and clients remain unaffected.

With over 5 Gbps capacity to LINX and Tier-1 networks, Xtraordinary is connected to the world's top bandwidth providers. In other words, data on Xtraordinary servers doesn't need to travel through a maze of networks to reach its destination. With more direct routes and the capability of rerouting traffic to alternative networks, the services is less prone to performance problems resulting in faster data throughput.

Alastair Giffin adds: "Prendo's simulations require as much processing power as possible. Over the years, Xtraordinary has seamlessly upgraded Prendo's CPU capacity as the appropriate technologies have become available, allowing Prendo to focus on customer satisfaction without worrying about server maintenance."

Case Study - Level7 Systems

Andrew Ogilvie

on November 25, 2012

Level7 Systems is a communications service provider, which utilises a wide array of Internet networks as a platform for P2P and B2B communications. Level7 offers VoIP (Voice over IP) based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to both Business and Residential customers. The company has a global customer base and wherever they are they expect to be able to connect to the network at all times, with crisp and clear voice communication.

Level7's Chris Maciejewski explains: "As a communications company, it is important we give our customers, who are accustomed to 99.9% connectivity, the sensation that our systems are running on a solid platform. This can be complicated because of the unique infrastructure of our systems, which are interconnected with voice gateways in the UK and the US. In order to achieve maximum uptime, we needed a UK Internet host with the best possible connection to US networks to provide seamless communication between multiple server locations. Unfortunately, the initial hosting providers we used failed to provide low levels of latency and the Tier-1 connections necessary for reliable hosting, so it became clear we needed a host with global connectivity and most importantly stability to ensure an uninterrupted service."

Xtraordinary Hosting with servers housed in both Edinburgh and London, is mature in the field of Virtual Private Server hosting. In terms of stability and connectivity, Xtraordinary has provided exactly what Level7 needed.

Chris adds: "Xtraordinary offers the precise Tier-1 connections we need, allowing for clear throughput of data communication between our servers in New Jersey and in the UK. Secondly, the stability we have experienced with Xtraordinary's servers is exactly what we require and expect from an Internet host. Xtraordinary has multiple levels of redundancy: enterprise grade HP hardware with redundant components, geographical dispersal of servers and their own multi-homed network with the ability to re-route traffic when links fail. These all contribute to a flexible and stable service that we never have to worry about."

Among Xtraordinary's "upstream" network providers is Level(3) Communications - the largest Tier-1 network on the planet. Level(3) operates a Tier-1 intercity network covering 67,000 miles and local networks in 116 cities across North America. This is exactly what gives Level7 the connectivity it needs with the United States. Xtraordinary is a member of the London Internet Exchange (LINX) and peers directly with all the major UK ISPs as well as numerous networks located in Europe and Asia, giving Xtraordinary customers the best global connectivity possible.

Writing on the Level7 blog, Chris says: "We use VPS servers for most of our infrastructure in the UK and US. If you are looking for a reliable UK based VPS look no further and go straight to Xtraordinary Hosting - for the last 24 months their service was excellent. Network and hosts rock stable. I can't remember contacting their support except for usual matters such as PTR records etc.

Case Study - Handmade Mobile

Andrew Ogilvie

on June 11, 2011

Handmade Mobile Entertainment provide celebrities and brands with their own social network, the freedom to post video, audio, photo and text content and ability to control how their audience view that content. It was founded in 2005 and has offices in Santa Monica CA, and London. Users can decided if their content is free or premium, and if it available to everyone or just select users.

When seeking a provider for one of Handmade's award-winning social networking services, Handmade settled on Xtraordinary Hosting. The throughput demands of running a real-time interactive service requires serious Internet infrastructure to maintain an excellent user experience. With their previous datacentre provider running out of rack-space and power for additional servers, the company took the opportunity to upgrade their supplier.

James Stockton, Chief Financial Officer, said, "We were determined to find a solution that could handle future scalability in terms of datacentre space, power and connectivity. It was important we find providers that were capable of offering a reliable and resilient service with multiple top tier internet network connections in London. After a rigorous selection process we selected the combination of Interxion for datacentre space and Xtraordinary Hosting for scalable bandwidth in London. Both providers have excellent reputations for in-built resilience and reliability."

Xtraordinary provides direct diverse connections handled between five tier-1 internet networks. Extensive dual gigabit peering on LINX (London Internet Exchange) provides very high service resilience with auto failover for increased resilience. A fully redundant carrier grade network delivers low network latency and reliability of packet throughput essential for this kind of online service.

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