Reference story - PTL Gateway
PTLGateway Limited are a UK IT Hosting & Managed Services specialist who provide a hosted and fully managed corporate desktop to customers. The company supports most Microsoft applications, as well as a number of specialist business software products. PTLGateway’s services allow customers to either have their own dedicated servers managed and hosted from the PTLGateway data centre and purchase shared services such as antivirus, remote access and data backup support, or they can choose for the fully hosted model where they share servers and services with other hosted customers albeit in isolation from each other.
To support this service PTLGateway needed to implement a solution which would manage their hosted services platform supporting multiple customers running applications on a common infrastructure. RES PowerFuse allows PTLGateway to quickly and securely provide their users with a consistent user workspace across multiple devices and application delivery mechanisms.
The Situation
PTLGateway wanted to create a hosted services platform that could be configured quickly and ensured the system performed optimally for every client. PTLGateway had found in the past that they were spending a considerable amount of time customising logon scripts, Active Directory policies and individual application registry keys to create a custom environment for each client. Nigel Smee knew PTLGateway needed a solution which could provide the business with a robust and easy-to-use management framework. Time invested early in building their hosted services platform would make expansion and stability far easier in the future.
“As a hosted services business we needed an environment that could be white labeled and tailored for individual clients. We needed to ensure that we could achieve optimal performance from our infrastructure, which is not always easy when hosted applications are competing for shared resources on our Terminal Servers. We also wanted to be flexible and offer customers the ability to have tailored access rights for groups and individuals within their organisation”.
The Solution
PTLGateway was first introduced to RES PowerFuse after meeting with the company at the Citrix iForum in 2004. After running a two week pilot scheme the company decided to adopt RES PowerFuse as its corporate standard.
PTLGateway selected RES PowerFuse because of its administrative ease as it provides users with superior capabilities to streamline, configure, secure and monitor its hosting environment from one central console. Users need to employ just one solution that includes everything that is needed to provide Microsoft Windows users with a consistent user workspace across the entire enterprise.
The Benefits
PTLGateway has used RES PowerFuse to implement a more scalable platform with superior management controls and reporting. This has made it easy for PTLGateway to support new start-ups, expanding the reach of companies PTLGateway can target thereby improving their presence in the marketplace.
Internally adopting such a simple yet powerful tool makes it easy for PTLGateway to train staff. Time is employed on useful tasks rather than routine IT maintenance. Using RES PowerFuse has helped PTLGateway to achieve its objective of keeping the team small and focus on revenue generating rather than just providing administration and day to day support of the environment.
The Future
The implementation of RES PowerFuse has been so successful that PTLGateway decided to start rolling out the new version, RES PowerFuse Series 8, as soon as it was available. Nigel Smee says RES PowerFuse has had a tremendously positive impact on the organisation.
“Implementing RES PowerFuse has enabled us to broaden our service offerings further than we anticipated,” concluded Smee. “We are constantly thinking of new things we can do for our customers without the need to implement ever more servers or solutions. The power and flexibility of RES PowerFuse are real differentiators and has made a tremendous difference to us from an administrative perspective as well as our customers receiving a higher level of service and superior end-user experience.”
The power and flexibility of RES PowerFuse are real differentiators and has made a tremendous difference to us from an administrative perspective as well as our customers receiving a higher level of service and superior end-user experience.
Nigel Smee, Project Manager, UK