A roaring success

About Blue Tiger Solutions
Blue Tiger Solutions was formed to help growing online businesses make the jump from off-the-shelf web hosting packages to custom hosting platforms designed to deliver the performance, resilience and scalability they need.

The founders of Blue Tiger Solutions gained experience in building and operating global scale network and data centre operations for companies such as PacketExchange, Level 3 and Reuters. Then they used that experience to help much smaller companies build their infrastructure to a similar standard of resilience and scalability without attracting the ‘corporate price tag’.

Dan Hawkins, Blue Tiger’s Managing Director, commented further: “We offer Bespoke Managed Services, which is where we engage with a new client to offer a platform and service that accurately suits their needs.” He added, “We enable them to effectively ‘cherry pick’ the precise elements they require, then bring all the parts together to form and create their desired solution.” He continued, “We have vast network and data centre experience. We know the core products and we understand how to get the best out of them and how we can adapt those products to fit a customer’s unique business requirement.”

Blue Tiger has a very loyal band of customers that range from large, and high profiled corporations right down to one-man bands. Their core customers are online retailers and online businesses that have typically had a good idea, been successful with it and are currently, growing rapidly. Dan went on to say, “Our online customers are very savvy technologists who certainly do know their stuff.” He continued, “As online businesses, they fully realise and know their infrastructure must remain both resilient and diverse. Because if for some reason it stops working, they are not online and, at that point, they don’t effectively have a business!” Dan added, “They are however reluctant to just simply hand their infrastructure over to a third party, which is really where we come in, because we can offer a truly bespoke package for them. We identify precisely what they need, explain exactly how the suggested solution will work, identify precisely what they need and demonstrate to them that it will be ‘fit for purpose’. As well as reassuring them why they can trust us 100% to operate and maintain it 24/7.”

The Selection Process
Blue Tiger has high standards and expectations of its carefully chosen partners and suppliers. As Dan explains, “Our customers want a single point of contact. We have to be absolutely satisfied that any potential new partners meet the standards that both our customers and we demand. City Lifeline has certainly lived up to those.”

There was another compelling reason for selecting City Lifeline, as well as testing their ability to deliver, as Dan explains, “We already had a customer in the building next door to City Lifeline and we wanted to be able to install a cross connect into their building to establish a high grade interconnect.” He continued, “This was a different and difficult thing to achieve but City Lifeline were very accommodating about it. They gave us lots of valuable help and advice, as well as suggesting that we would need the services of an architect, who was duly appointed. Although there were a few challenges along the way, it was all successful and is still working perfectly today.”

Geography was an important factor in the selection. Dan went on: “Our clients wanted our data centre to be in the City. City Lifeline offered us the ideal location, giving easy access whilst also being just outside the ‘Ring of Steel’ Central London Exclusion Zone.”

Dan summed up by saying; “City Lifeline really did offer us the perfect solution for our requirement. They have certainly proved to be an excellent, reliable and trustworthy partner over the time we have been with them.”

The installation
Taking aside the difficulty and challenges raised by the cross connect exercise to the adjacent building, the general installation process went extremely smoothly as Dan recalls, “The experience was good and the main installation went very well and was trouble free.”

On-going relationship
Major factors for the relationship are not only the on-going reliability and level of service provided by City Lifeline but also that it continues to meet and maintain the required standards that Blue Tiger expects. Dan said, “City Lifeline have certainly met or exceeded all our expectations and have proved to be very easy to work with. This has made the relationship much stronger and ultimately more productive for us both.”

Part of the reason for being easy to work with is explained by Dan when he says, “Accessibility and open conversation make the relationship work. City Lifeline has a flat management structure, so I can have a conversation with the Directors at any time. They are fully aware of the status of our products and services and are pragmatic in their approach to running those services.”

Dan then went on to talk about the data centre saying, “City Lifeline now meets all the top industry standards and looks and operates like a truly professional datacentre,” He continued, “It is reliable and resilient, has the appropriate security, good facilities and the power and cooling are very good.” Adding, “It is the coolest site we have our equipment in!” He finished by saying; “In fact, we have so much confidence in the facility that we now use it as our main demonstration site for potential customers.”

Case Study
Dan went on to comment on City Lifeline’s on-site staff saying, “The personnel have always been good. On the rare occasions that we’ve had to call on their services, they’ve always dealt with the issues promptly and reported back explaining the problem’s cause.” He went on to say, “The feedback from an experienced engineer is invaluable in deciding whether we need our engineers to do more to fix the problem.”

In today’s environment, cost is a major issue. City Lifeline also scores highly on this front, as Dan highlights, “City Lifeline has a very sensible approach to cost. For example, cross connects provide a good metric. With City Lifeline, you feel you’re getting value for money. Other companies we’ve used are at least double the amount, as well as having an annual recurring fee, so there is really no contest.”

Futures
Blue Tiger continue to expand, as Dan explains: ”Our success has not only come from repeat business, from our existing customers, but also from their recommendations to other companies and word of mouth. It’s flattering but also shows our business model is working and our hard work is being recognised. “He summed up by saying, “We will continue to grow our business at a sustainable rate to make sure that our services and standards always remain at the same high level that our customers expect and demand.” Dan ended by saying; “The future looks very bright and exciting for both of us, as City Lifeline grows organically alongside us. As and when we need to add more facilities or services, they will certainly be our colocation data centre of choice.”