The Challenge
The Austrian customers who approach CSC to host and manage their applications tend to be typical of the companies in that country: small to medium-size enterprises that carry out specialised activities in very particular fields. As Keisler puts it: “In Austria you’re more likely to find a company that designs and manufactures a complex car part than one that manufactures cars.”
These characteristics influence those companies’ thinking about where their data resides. As a leading global provider of IT and outsourcing solutions, CSC operates data centres all around the world, including in Europe. For the companies that come to CSC in Austria, however, a European location isn’t specific enough: they want to be certain that the data and applications CSC manages for them will never leave Austria.
“Regulations are a factor to a certain extent, of course, but it’s more that people’s feelings are dictating their decisions,” explains Keisler. “And if they want their data and applications to stay in Austria, then we need to be able to make that happen.”
Interxion’s neutrality is important to us: CSC wouldn’t want to colocate with a company that offered competing services.
Andreas Keisler
Head of Global Infrastructure Services, Austria and Eastern Europe, CSC
The Solution
CSC previously met its customers’ residency requirements by operating a data centre at its own premises in Vienna. But an office move meant it had to leave that data centre behind, and find or build a new one.
CSC decided on colocation as its preferred strategy: it was quicker to organise than building its own data centre, and freed the company from capital investment and concerns about sizing and scalability. Colocation also enables CSC to make the best use of its people and their expertise, allowing them to devote their time and effort to developing and managing customers’ applications and the traditional, virtualised and cloud infrastructures that host them.
“Colocating with Interxion means we don’t have to think about data centre fundamentals like space, power and cooling,” says Keisler. “What’s more, it’s a very flexible arrangement: if we need more capacity, it’s readily available — all we have to do is talk to Interxion and amend our contract with them.”
Interxion’s data centre provides multilayered security and meets recognised international standards for information security management systems and business continuity management — factors companies count on when they choose CSC to host their applications.
“At CSC our overriding focus is on providing professional services to customers, so we need to work with partners who offer corresponding levels of professional support and operational excellence,” says Keisler. “That’s exactly what we get with Interxion.”
Being able to connect customers to their applications at the data centre is naturally a key requirement. Because Interxion is carrier neutral, CSC has the widest choice of connectivity providers. The data centre is home to the Vienna Internet Exchange (VIX), which gives CSC access to every Austrian carrier and enables lower last mile costs for customer connections.
And to connect customers in other countries, or Austrian customers’ subsidiaries that may be as far away as China or India, CSC can choose from a range of large global network providers also present in the data centre.
But Interxion’s neutrality isn’t limited to connectivity: it doesn’t offer any type of end-user service, and so doesn’t compete for customers with CSC. “Interxion’s neutrality is important to us: we wouldn’t want to colocate with a company that offered competing services,” says Keisler.
“CSC is about adding value to a customer’s business with consultancy, system integration and managed services. Interxion’s core business is providing well run, independent data centres. It’s a perfect combination that enables us to deliver a complete, high-quality solution to our customers at a reasonable price,” he concludes.