Experian signs Asia Pacific hosting agreement with Macquarie Telecom
Experian’s first consolidated data centre to be hosted in Sydney
Sydney, 2 August 2010: Macquarie Telecom (ASX: MAQ) today announced a two year data centre hosting agreement with Experian, a global information services firm. The agreement will see Macquarie Telecom host a fully redundant 24x7 managed co-location environment enabling the company to set up its first consolidated data centre in Asia-Pacific.
Experian provides data, analytical and marketing services that enable organisations to make and execute better decisions. Experian required a hosting solution that could support its rapid regional growth including protecting business critical and confidential data.
The signing will enable Experian to grow flexibly to extend its services in Australia and the wider region whilst also aligning to the global data centre consolidation strategy.
For the past five years Experian has worked to consolidate 20-30 of its smaller co-location centres across the US and EMEA, centralising in California and the UK. Experian’s Asia Pacific business is experiencing rapid growth, and it was imperative the company replicated this consolidation locally in order to meet increasing customer service requirements.
“We see partnering with Macquarie Telecom as an important step in achieving our strategy of being the leading information services provider in the Asia Pacific region,” said Paul Vescovi, Managing Director, Experian Australia and New Zealand. “Consolidating our data centres will reduce our operating costs and provide one secure location for our customers’ business critical and confidential data.”
The deal provides Experian with managed infrastructure in Macquarie Telecom’s ISO and ASIO T4 certified data centre, the Intellicentre, to host the company’s Hong Kong data centre back up and support 300 servers across the region, offering 80-100 terabytes of enterprise storage and network links to the company’s 12 regional offices. This allows Experian Asia Pacific to seamlessly integrate its services between its regional offices.
Experian hosts a vast amount of confidential customer data, and Macquarie Telecom was also selected for its ability to provide the highest level of accredited security and uptime for mission critical hosting. Macquarie Telecom is the only hosting services provider in Australia to achieve independent third party PCI Compliance certification. It offers the highest-levels of local security certifications and accreditations (ISO27001, DSD Gateway and ASIO T4), making its data centre facilities amongst the most secure in Australia.
“Location is very important to us,” said Vescovi. “We offer our clients a range of services including customer acquisition, customer management, credit risk management, fraud prevention, collection strategy and marketing services, which makes security paramount to us. The Intellicentre has dual electricity supplies, dual exchanges, fully redundant 24x7 access. We also conducted a security audit of the hosting facility, as we do for all our data centres, to ensure our customers’ data and our network security met with Experian’s global standards.”
“Macquarie Telecom is a world leader and prides itself on delivering Personal Accountable Service to its customers,” said Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Macquarie Hosting. “The single account manager model that Macquarie Telecom offers its clients really appealed to Experian’s interests. We’re delighted to be a part of Experian’s strategic direction and to be selected as the host of its first consolidated data centre in Asia Pacific.”
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