Photo24 chose Fujitsu's IaaS leasing model because it wanted to avoid tying up large amounts of capital in IT infrastructure, but still wanted the capacity and availability that would allow it to use technology to deliver on promises to its customers. Thanks to Fujitsu's pay-as-you-use model, Photo24 is guaranteed flexibility and dependability of its IT systems, plus the assurance that its systems will always be available - backed by a service level agreement.
It was in 2009 that Photo24, a young, dynamic multimedia company with an extensive portfolio of photo services, recognized that it needed to replace its old Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution and hardware - as limited capacity was beginning to hinder the company's growth. Photo24's business model means that it needs a lot of space to store multimedia files. The company's many employees must be able to access server and storage capacities around the clock in order to retrieve or upload files. At the same time, the systems have to be powerful enough to handle Photo24's ERP processes. After evaluating the option of establishing an in-house data center, Photo24 ruled this out on the grounds of huge upfront investment in equipment, space and staffing, and the lack of flexibility in adjusting to both seasonal peaks and growing business process requirements.
The alternative solution proposed by channel partner SIGMA Chemnitz was a cloud solution based on Fujitsu's IaaS offering. The IT infrastructure is physically located at a Fujitsu data center, guaranteeing Photo24 up-to-date and available resources, while Fujitsu also manages data security and backup, providing additional peace-of-mind for Photo24. This reassurance also stretches to Photo24's customers, who have entrusted the company, for example, to produce photos of newborn babies and offer them via the photo portal www.babysmile24.de to parents and their relatives.
From a financial perspective, Photo24 confirms that Fujitsu's IaaS solution has reduced administrative overhead and technology costs, as it completely eliminates the time, manpower and cost that Photo24 would otherwise incur in supporting and upgrading hardware on their own IT systems, as well as the costs providing training, software, certificates, maintenance work and updates. The flexible «pay-as-you-go» model frees the company from tying up capital in unnecessary hardware while increasing cost transparency.
To ensure that the service transition and launch went as smoothly as possible, SIGMA created a customized service concept and coordinated the handover with Fujitsu, providing consulting on the appropriate configuration and coordination with the data center.
Andre Kiehne, Vice-President Services at Fujitsu Technology Solutions says, «The success story at Photo24 underlines how businesses that depend on IT no longer need actually manage their technology in order to prosper - in fact, as demonstrated here, making the switch to Infrastructure as a Service enabled Photo24 to remove the technology-imposed restraints on expanding their already successful business. Photo24 now has an IT platform that is totally flexible to the company's future needs - and the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they are able to deliver customer satisfaction.»
Katja Mäding, Head of Production and Organization at Photo24, says: «Fujitsu's Infrastructure as a Service offers us advantages in business administration and reduces the burden on our internal IT resources. For companies like ours, complex IT projects with a significant influence on business processes can only be accomplished with the professional support of a service provider. With its know-how, SIGMA Chemnitz was the perfect trusted partner for this project.»
For more information about Fujitsu’s IaaS offering, please refer to http://ts.fujitsu.com/iaas and for Fujitsu´s overall Dynamic Cloud story please have a look at http://ts.fujitsu.com/....
About Photo24 Production GmbH
Photo24 Production GmbH is a young and dynamic multimedia company with an extensive portfolio of photo services. Photo24 operates the web portal www.babysmile24.de to offer for parents, kith and kin professional baby photos immediately after the birth in the hospital.
About SIGMA Chemnitz GmbH
SIGMA Chemnitz GmbH is an experienced provider of IT systems and software solutions. The company was founded in 1990 and offers a wide range of professional IT Services and particular experience in cloud services. SIGMA has about 50 highly qualified professional employees.
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