November 2010

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2010

Interactive was proud to support the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2010 that was held from 16-18 November in Sydney. The theme for this year was "transitions": new realities, rules and opportunities. Other hot topics were cloud, virtualisation, IT governance, unified comms and sustainability.

The Gartner ITxpo gave Interactive staff the opportunity to discuss our cloud solutions with a large number of attendants. We were pleased to offer participants the opportunity to win an iPad and an Interactive cloud server in our daily draw. First prize winners were; Geoscience Australia, Xtralis and Rio Tinto Iron Ore. Second prize winners were; Parsons Brinckerhoff, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and IOOF.

October 2010

Unable to afford unreliable systems, Bluestone banks on third-party service [Editorial] - The Australian

Interactive stepped in and assisted Bluestone with hardware maintenance support, multi-subscriber disaster recovery and co-location with racks at Interactive's data centre in Sydney.

During the global financial crisis, non-bank lender Bluestone moved into third-party servicing, increasing its technology needs. Bluestone chief technology officer Bradley Locke said the business became increasingly service-centric and needed robust technology systems and business continuity capabilities.

"Our previous supplier had been with Bluestone for quite some time and they were doing live monitoring and they provided the equipment as well as maintenance on the equipment," Mr Locke said. Last November, Bluestone upgraded to a newer switch through another supplier, but it had not been put under maintenance. When it failed, the previous supplier was unable to help.

"With Interactive, it is the same person each time, and they are really quick in getting stuff done, and always have the parts in stock.”

"We did have a look out in the market, but just on price Interactive was the best for us, and then on top of that there was the fact that we knew the way they worked with our server maintenance as well.”

The article also appeared online in the Australian Online. Click here to read more!

August 2010

Counting on Critical Support [Editorial] - The Australian

Interactive’s Hardware Maintenance Services to Melbourne customer, Cabrini Health

Eddie Harrison, Cabrini Health’s Information Services Manager discusses the key drivers behind his decision to move from multi-vendor maintenance to Interactive and how this has benefited his company. Eddie discusses the growth of the IT department, critical infrastructure and how Interactive are meeting all their internal SLA’s. Some quotes below:

“The Interactive agreement has really streamlined our process for support – so whatever the hardware issues are, we just ring one number and we know they are going to be there to support us.”

“IT is becoming more critical, so we needed to be able to have sound, reliable and experienced support staff to help us out immediately rather than having to wait a day turnaround to get parts.”

The article also appeared online in The Australian Online. Click here to read more!

June 2010

Interactive receives ISO 9001 accreditation

SAI Global has accredited Interactive with ISO 9001 after completing comprehensive audits of management processes and inspecting Interactive's offices, data centres and warehouses across Australia. Managing Director of Interactive, Christopher Ride, commented, "It's very important that we run a quality organisation with quality management procedures and processes. ISO 9001 Accreditation is an excellent indicator that we are running a world-class company that is constantly looking at ways to improve."

ISO 9001 is the world’s most established quality framework, currently being used by over one million organizations in 161 countries. SAI Global is a worldwide organisation that audits and certifies the ISO product under strict quality guidelines. "We are here to provide our customers with the best services available," Ride commented. "ISO 9001 accreditation and the associated annual audits are an excellent addition to the rigorous standards Interactive currently sets."

April 2010

Other Passions [Editorial] - Australian Financial Review

Interview with Christopher Ride, Managing Director of Interactive...

Click here to read more.

March 2010

2010 Melbourne F1 Grand Prix

Interactive Managing Director, Christopher Ride, was hosted by IMG Australia Director, Christopher Gilbert, at the Phillip Morris marquee at the 2010 Melbourne F1 Grand Prix. "It was fantastic opportunity to go behind the scenes of the Marlboro Ferrari team, into the pits, to meet the team principles and listen to Fernando Alonso speak about the upcoming race," Ride commented. Interactive is proud to be a provider of critical IT services to both IMG and Phillip Morris in Australia. In the all-important race the Ferraris finished a respectable third (Massa) and forth (Alonso) in an eventful wet race that finished in almost total darkness.

March 2010

Perfect one day, not so perfect the next...

On the afternoon of Saturday 6 March, Melbourne was hit with powerful hailstorms and flash flooding, causing extensive damage to public, business and residential premises across the city. The Bureau of Meteorology reported up to 100mm of rainfall, severe wind gusts and hailstones up to 10cm in diameter. The Melbourne Aquarium, Southern Cross Station, Flemington Racecourse and National Gallery of Victoria experienced damage, flooding and the need for rapid evacuation of visitors. CBD streets were gridlocked, freeways closed and street flooding was reported up to the height of cars.

An estimated 30,000 businesses and residents lost power, some 8000 for six or more hours. Whilst Interactive was hit by the worst of the weather, our data centre operations were not affected due to excellent data centre design and IT redundancy systems. To discuss hosting your critical IT systems at a secure Interactive data centre, please contact your relationship manager or fill in your details via the “Contact Us” section of this website.

January 2010

Interactive cloud catches manufacturing giant [Editorial] - ARN

IT services provider, Interactive, has netted a cloud-based managed services deal with packaging manufacturer, Aperio.

Interactive has done IT hardware maintenance for Aperio for the past two years and both parties entered into discussions about a managed services relationship nine months ago.

Aperio originally ran its IT infrastructure out of its Chester Hill plant, which handled communications and data distribution for the company's network of Australian factories.

Bottlenecks in the network were common and a technology refresh was due, the company said. Aperio eventually decided to hand its IT management over to Interactive.

The managed services contract runs for three years and will see the IT firm supply infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).

Click here to read the full article.