Retail Assist expands data centre

Retail Assist expands data centre

Retail Assist, the specialist provider of outsourced IT to the retail sector, has recently released news of two major contract wins that have heralded a period of strong growth for the company.

Shortly after securing a 5-year extension to its IT outsourcing contract with high-street retailer, Adams Childrenswear, Retail Assist was selected by Rubicon as its outsourced IT provider. Rubicon is a dynamic young organisation and owner of the Principles and Warehouse fashion brands.

 "To support the expansion of our business that these wins represent, we have expanded our Northampton Data Centre and we have also embarked upon a programme of recruitment," says Retail Assist's Managing Director, Alan Morris.

 An important part of Retail Assist's selective outsourcing capability is systems hosting. This enables retailers to locate their machines within a secure environment at the company's Northampton Data Centre. Advantages of this approach include reduced management overheads and access to a wider range of expert operations staff than a retailer may otherwise wish to employ.

 The Data Centre expansion sees a doubling of space. Staff numbers employed at the Centre are increasing by a third and a new technical services team is being set up, composed of both existing and new staff.

 Adds Gary Broughton, Support Services Director, "Our prime role here is to host computing environments for Retail Assist clients. The additional space will enable us to offer this facility to new clients and to add further machines. The Centre will also be used to host client meetings and to showcase our range of technical services."

 To support its new client Rubicon, whose IT infrastructure is now hosted at Northampton, Retail Assist has installed the latest IBM i-series technology which incorporates logical partitioning, as well transitioning a server farm consisting of Citrix, File and Active Directory servers. Retail Assist has also recently installed a new IBM i-series machine, with logical partitioning, for Adams Childrenswear. The installation of a new generator together with an upgraded uninterruptible power supply (UPS) make the Centre completely self-sufficient.

 

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