System Integrator MTI Closes First European Deal for the VMware, Cisco & EMC Cloud Coalition (VCE), the sale of Vblock 1 with European Hosting Company Cobweb

London 6 July 2010 – MTI, a leading international provider of consulting services and comprehensive information infrastructure solutions for mid- to large-size organisations, has sold the first Vblock 1 solution in Europe. The customer, Cobweb, is a leading managed services provider in the UK and Europe. Vblock infrastructure packages are integrated and tested IT solutions stemming from the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, that combine virtualisation, networking, storage, security, and management technologies by Cisco, EMC and VMware.

Vblock 1, which MTI also has installed in its own UK Solution Centre, is based on Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS), EMC’s CLARiiON storage system and VMware’s vSphere 4 platform. The package helps organisations accelerate their adoption of private cloud environments while eliminating the risks traditionally associated with the deployment of this IT model.

During the last six months the “Cobweb Cloud” model has seen great traction in the mid-size and enterprise space. In order to meet this market demand Cobweb required a scalable and efficient “pay-as-you-grow” virtualisation and compute platform.  After many months of testing the Vblock with MTI it proved to satisfy the needs of the business.  Paul Hannam CEO of Cobweb states, “the VCE coalition supported by MTI has presented an exciting opportunity for Cobweb and this new Vblock offering enables us to broaden our reach with the “Cobweb Cloud” satisfying the needs of enterprise business for both private, public and hybrid clouds.”

Cobweb was attracted to the Vblock 1 package as it offers all the benefits associated with the cloud computing such as lower total cost of ownership and faster deployment. The solution can be used as a platform to host a range of existing and new services.

“Back in November2009, MTI  invited us to perform an in-depth proof of concept on its in-house Vblock 1 system over a period of several months. Since they had always delivered on our briefs in the past we were keen to put it through its paces,” said Paul Hannam, CEO at Cobweb. “We started our testing in early 2010 and not only did we find that Vblock can easily host all of Cobweb’s current applications but it also offered Cobweb services such as Desktop as a Service as well as management tools and consumption reporting. MTI’s expertise and initiative provided reliable assistance to keep Cobweb at the forefront of the managed service provider industry.”

MTI has been helping Cobweb build and maintain a best-in-class Microsoft Exchange hosting service for the past five years. The brief includes ensuring high availability in order to serve customers such as the Transport for London website 24/7, whilst having the ability to expand the range of services to include SharePoint and CRM among others.

MTI is certified to the highest Data Centre level with Cisco, EMC and VMware. The company holds the Advanced Data Centre Partner Specialisation (DCNI, DCSN & ATP) from Cisco UKI, having been an EMC Velocity Signature Solutions Centre Partner for many years. MTI recently announced its status as a VMware Premier partner. For organisations looking to learn more about the VCE coalition and Vblock solutions, MTI offers a number of workshops that enable IT administrators to better understand these packages to ultimately make informed decisions.

“We are extremely excited to have closed the first Vblock 1 deal in Europe. Vblocks can make a tremendous difference in simplifying an IT environment and because MTI is among the most highly qualified integrators in Europe we can help organisations make the most of these architectures,” said Alan Watson, Infrastructure Practice Director at MTI. “MTI has a strong and long-standing track record with the VCE coalition, this is one of the reasons why I joined the team. I am accelerating the understanding of these solutions to our existing and potential new customers, showing the value and peace of mind that can be provided to them by best-in-class support for Vblock implementations.”