Cloud hosting service from Information Builders

Johan Jurd, MD of InfoBuild, representing Information Builders in SA, said Information Builders' WebFOCUS and iWay solutions for BI and software integration, can be deployed as a shared virtual environment or using dedicated private resources as part of the cloud solution, a first for SA.

"It is a fully managed, off-premise computing infrastructure with comprehensive managed hosting services aimed at minimising the need for IT expertise. This includes ongoing cloud support and disaster recovery procedures for protecting critical data," said Jurd.

InfoBuild will recommend a cloud configuration based on a needs assessment and provide WebFOCUS and iWay software as well as cloud support services.

"Customers who already have a relationship with a cloud vendor may continue to work with them to meet their BI needs," he said.

Information Builders' Platform as a Service (PaaS) includes more than ten data centers spanning every geographic region. "This enables customers worldwide to combine our BI and information management solutions with the benefits and flexibility of the cloud. One of the data centres is situated in South Africa, so the issue of accessing data across borders is eliminated," he said.

The services will include VM, core and RAM sizing, as well as storage management. Database provisioning will also be provided as well as security methodology assistance, load balancing and failover support. Performance tuning recommendations will be provided and network bandwidth sizing.

The rollout of BI capabilities will be available to an unlimited number of users without the need to add IT administrative staff. The service will provide annual certification for HIPAA, PCI, SAS 70 and other standards and the BI content will be protected with full, frequently-tested disaster recovery procedures, said Jurd.