CLOUD services are not new to Jamaica, but David Allen, having been one of the first investors in this industry, has now sought to set himself apart from the competition by adding financial backing to his company’s service level agreement.

“We have made the commitment [to our customers] that, if we are not able to deliver what we promised, we will compensate you as a credit to your account,” Allen, CEO of Info Exchange, told the Jamaica Observer.

It’s a big gamble, but Allen is confident that his company can ensure that his customers’ information technology (IT) systems remain operational up to “99.999” per cent of the time.

The ‘five 9s’ is a difficult service standard to achieve and maintain, but through partnerships with international IT companies, Info Exchange is able to store and back-up its customers’ data in seven tier-four data centres located across North America, which ensures the recoverability of lost files, almost all the time.

Data centres are ranked in tiers, from one to four, with the latter considered as most robust and less prone to failures, having been designed to host critical servers and computer systems, and equipped with self-sufficient cooling, power and storage systems.

Info Exchange currently provides core IT services for over 100 local companies, including some of the biggest players in the financial sector who “cannot afford any down time”, because their core functions rely heavily on their ability to constantly access their data, Allen said.

Smaller companies are often more vulnerable to data losses because the high cost of owning and operating traditional data security systems is financially out of their reach.

“We allow regular companies to be able to afford data back-up and protection,” without having to invest large sums of capital, through the offering of infrastructure and software services, said Allen.

By outsourcing their IT services, businesses are better able to focus on their core business activities, thus improving their efficiency.

Allen said that business owners need to ask themselves “what business am I in?” and make the conscious decision to outsource the sometimes cumbersome IT management to those who are in that business.

While typically less expensive, the savings from outsourcing IT services are usually relative to that which companies currently spend to manage their data in-house.

A recent comparison between the option of outsourcing versus the total cost of ownership of e-mail infrastructure done for a customer showed savings of up to 65 per cent of the monthly spend.

Info Exchange first started to provide website and software development for local companies in 1996, and has since expanded its cloud-based service offerings to include e-mail spooling, anti-virus protection, data back-up and recovery, software development, and hosted microsoft exchange, among other services.

“We have the advantage of a 360-degree view on business processes and applications, having been integrally involved with technology delivery in Jamaica over the last 20 years,” Allen explained.