Looking for a secure, scalable environment to maximize its business operations and availability, Bemis Company chose Flexential to deliver its colocation services. Combined with demonstrated expertise in data center management, the Flexential IT solution improved IT operations and performance.
Reliable Colocation and Superior Customer Service Delivers Value to Global Supplier
The History
Managing its main data center in-house from the basement of a manufacturing facility, Bemis Company, a global manufacturer of flexible packaging products for food, consumer products, medical and pharmaceutical companies, was at high risk of downtime. Without built-in protections and geographic diversity, the global flexible packaging supplier risked its operations and the integrity of its data. Recognizing the potential threat posed by this situation, the company decided to move the data center’s physical location and its management to a third-party facility to optimize security, redundancy and scalability. Working with a consultant, Transitional Data Services, it assessed providers based on specific IT requirements, flexibility and cultural fit.
The Solution
Diverse Data Center Locations and Unrelenting Uptime Seal the Deal
Bemis Company selected Flexential as its hybrid IT solutions provider for its secure facilities and disaster recovery capabilities. With a portfolio of geographically diverse data centers located in areas not prone to natural disasters, Flexential offered the ideal environment to optimize security and availability and minimize the chances of a weather-related incident. The Flexential commitment to deliver 100 percent uptime on power and networking was another key driver in choosing the company to provide colocation and disaster recovery services, as one second of downtime can result in hours of lost productivity and lost revenue for the global supplier. This assurance of uptime as well as the 24/7/365 expert support and remote hands services, made Flexential the right colocation partner for Bemis.
The ability of Flexential to demonstrate knowledge on all levels, from colocation to security, inspired confidence in the Bemis team and an understanding that its IT infrastructure would be in good hands. “Everyone was impressed with the sales folks from the account executive down to the security team,” says Pa Lee, procurement manager at Bemis. “Flexential demonstrated knowledge and expertise throughout the procurement process. Our consultant felt Flexential was the best with regard to facilities and operations.”
The colocation solution offered by Flexential also includes power limits aligned with Bemis’ temperature controls and power needs, and a cage designed to house 16 cabinets of infrastructure plus power. Secured by multilayered physical security, the data center also boasts biometric scanners on cages to further enhance security.
“Everyone was impressed with the sales folks from the account executive down to the security team. Flexential demonstrated knowledge and expertise throughout the procurement process. Our consultant felt Flexential was the best with regard to facilities and operations.”
Powered by people, Flexential delivers robust, secure operations
With the Flexential data center in proximity to its internal IT team, Bemis is able to visit the data center when needed, while leaving other tasks to Flexential on-demand remote hands service. Bolstered by the security of the Flexential data center, around-the-clock expert support and remote hands capability, Bemis is no longer charged with managing the data center in-house. The result is better utilization of IT resources on other priorities more closely aligned with the company’s forward-thinking objectives.
With a comprehensive disaster recovery solution in place, Bemis is positioned to continue its operations in the face of a manmade or natural disaster, ensuring it can continue processing orders, serving customers and performing internal operations.
Hybrid IT promises optimal scalability and performance in the future
Beyond colocation, Lee reports that Bemis is considering additional Flexential hybrid IT services for future virtualization. “In addition to colocation, we looked at the Flexential cloud and managed solutions and that was one of the deciding factors,” he says. “We know that Bemis will move into virtualization and we are now positioned with a broader breadth of services.” This flexibility is key to Bemis as they move forward. The ability to easily transition between colocation and cloud services to optimize its hybrid architecture allows the company to seamlessly support its evolving business direction and continuously strengthen performance.
Flexential was a cultural fit for us, from start to finish it goes back to the people factor. People who will treat this as their own company... Flexential made us comfortable and feel right at home in their data center.”