GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) has revealed the result of a review of the future of its computer hardware footprint. The Big Pharma has decided to move its networking computing unit offsite to a TierPoint facility, a model it thinks will give it scalable and secure capacity that meets its uptime requirements.
Execs at GSK made the decision to hook up with TierPoint following a review into how it could cut the risk and improve the long-term financial performance associated with its IT hardware. Specifically, GSK set out to assess whether it could achieve these goals by consolidating a sizeable chunk of its global hardware capacity at an offsite location.
GSK narrowed its search to Tier III data centers, which are defined as sites that have dual-powered IT equipment and other features designed to ensure the system is available 99.982% of the time. This amounts to 1.6 hours of interruption a year. Ultimately, the search led to the TekPark campus in Pennsylvania, the location of a TierPoint facility that GSK thinks will meet the needs of its operation.
“TekPark's state-of-the-art design, scalability and growth potential, along with highly redundant and concurrently maintainable systems meet the critical uptime and operational efficiency requirements of GSK's customer global network,” William Trifaro, director of GSK data center operations and facilities said in a statement.
These factors led GSK’s engineering team to conclude that the TierPoint facility exceeded the brief it set when it began review, both in terms of forecast uptime and security. “TierPoint's ability to deliver capacities and security levels that far exceed industry standards became the tipping factors in our decision,” Trifaro said.
The security features extend beyond the IT system to the facility itself, where TierPoint has installed biometric access control and other feature designed to protect its operation from unauthorized users.
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