Established in 1860, Standard & Poor’s is a pre-eminent provider of independent financial analysis and information to the financial community and is one of the world’s top providers of stock quotes and related financial content to Internet sites globally. This information is available to clients twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
As Standard & Poor’s existing legacy UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) solution would not meet the technical specifications of a new data centre planned for its Broadgate West offices in the City of London, it undertook a full review of the available solutions. on365 was already providing high levels of support for the existing legacy UPS solution so it was able to provide independent advice on the different options and solutions.
Three kVA N+1 APC Symmetra Rack-Mounts in pre-configured premium NetShelters were selected to make best use of the limited available floor space in the data centre and to enable staff based at Standard & Poor’s other London offices in Finsbury Circus to monitor and control the UPS remotely. An APC Master Switch module was added to give remote access via a web browser enabling authorised staff to initiate an unattended shutdown and reboot of the UNIX servers. Also included were a web SNMP card to allow remote monitoring over the web and a temperature and humidity card to monitor the environment, in terms of power and cooling, in the data centre.
Working closely with the building facilities team, on365 supplied detailed installation specifications for the protected power solution and took full responsibility for the implementation. It has continued to provide the highest levels of support including a unique five-year extended warranty with battery replacement after two and half years, regular inspections, power audits and telephone support.
According to David Fernandez, UNIX Systems Administrator for Standard & Poor’s: “The ‘best of breed’ protected power solution is playing a key role in safeguarding our valuable corporate database and maintaining communications with clients. It has eliminated the unnecessary and longwinded start up procedures that are required in the event of a system crash. This has already resulted in major savings in time and manpower resources.”
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