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SYDNEY, Australia.- 31 March, 2011- Local IT outsourcing provider ASE IT is transforming its data centre infrastructure with best-of-breed equipment from NetApp, Cisco and Citrix driven by continued growth and interest in cloud services by Australian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The Sydney and Silicon Valley-based company is currently readying its infrastructure for the journey to virtual desktops by implementing a system to unify its storage, computing, networking and virtualization platforms. Using the company's ten years of experience in managed "desktop to data centre" services and hosted collaboration applications, this is the natural progression of ASE IT's vision of the future of virtual desktops spanning both applications on the desktop and the end-users' environment for high security, performance and capacity.

"We're renewing our data centre infrastructure in a 60 day timeframe," says Andrew Sjoquist, Managing Director of ASE IT.

"While our existing infrastructures in Equinix Sydney 1 data centre and Equinix Silicon Valley 4 were still delivering return on investment and performance benefits to our customers, by moving to NetApp, Cisco and Citrix we'll gain a more flexible and scalable architecture.

"We anticipate the new unified platform will lead to multiple new revenue streams and services, lower operating costs and the business agility we need to deliver new services to market faster than ever before."

ASE IT's internal Cisco and NetApp engineering and implementation teams are working alongside channel partner, Bridge IT Solutions' infrastructure design experts to replace legacy infrastructure with the Cisco Unified Computing System. The company is also updating its network with Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches and introducing Citrix Xen Server software. The data centre will continue to have a foundation built on NetApp storage and storage management tools, with new NetApp FAS 3200 arrays deployed as part of the infrastructure renewal.

"The value proposition for selecting these vendors is because together they provide us with a pre-integrated, end-to-end virtual desktop solution to accelerate our time to market and differentiate us from our competition. Our cloud offering is more than just 'servers and storage', which is what sets us apart," says Mr Sjoquist.

"We align our cloud offering with IT and business requirements, as opposed to developer requirements only. This makes our services easy to use, as a dedicated cloud solution or as a hybrid solution integrated with our customers' existing IT infrastructure."

News Facts

• The ASE IT infrastructure is built on NetApp FAS 3200 and FAS 6200 unified storage infrastructure which handle diverse workloads across multiple protocols. The storage systems include vFiler and clustering technology as well as storage grid, a unique storage software solution designed to manage geographically diverse and demanding 'big data' loads such as images, video, and records for enterprises and service providers.
• The ASE IT infrastructure allows customers to connect their existing IT infrastructure to the cloud using NetApp SnapMirror and SnapVault technology to send enterprise data.
• The Cisco Unified Computing System unites the server, network, storage and virtualization capabilities of ASE IT's Data Centre in one energy-efficient system that requires fewer power supplies, less cabling and reduced hardware footprint. Innovations in Cisco 7000 Series Switches such as Cisco Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) technology enable ASE IT to deploy virtual computing resources and clusters across geographically distributed data centers for improved business resiliency.
• ASE IT is implementing a server virtualization platform through Citrix XenServer and its accompanying cloud technology toolkit. Citrix's XenClient, XenApp and XenDesktop technologies allow ASE IT to run virtual desktops even while disconnected from the network delivering and deploying applications and virtual desktops to users on demand. The Xen Centre chosen by ASE IT with StorageLink technology accompanies NetApp for Disaster Recovery as a Service allowing customers to run their disaster recovery requirements in the cloud. This offering replicates customer data to ASE IT's NetApp-powered cloud storage and can be up and running in as little as 90 seconds in the event of a disaster.

Supporting Quotes

Peter O'Connor VP NetApp ANZ:
"As companies virtualize more and more and cloud adoption becomes increasingly prevalent, business dynamics are changing as we know them. The NetApp storage chosen by ASE IT is a flexible and efficient storage platform with the capacity to manage the pace of change through a competitive and scalable cloud offering. ASE IT has chosen an innovation leader in NetApp for enabling shared and virtualized IT as a service, delivering exceptional efficiency and flexibility for next-generation data centres."

Les Williamson, VP, Cisco:
"We share ASE IT's vision for how virtual desktops will evolve and its commitment to making business easier for customers by providing choice and flexibility. With our business partners NetApp, Citrix and Bridge IT, we believe ASE IT is well positioned to build a cloud-optimised, shared virtual infrastructure that will dramatically enhance its customers' virtual desktop experience."

Peter Brockhoff, VP ANZ, Citrix:
"With the help of Citrix, ASE IT is delivering powerful virtualisation and networking solutions in a business environment that's only starting to realise the improvements in productivity, innovation and flexibility available through the cloud. In what is a rapidly changing space, ASE IT's' commitment to its data centre infrastructure will deliver a dynamic offering to its customers."

About ASE IT
ASE IT provides a complete desktop to data centre approach to the cloud, delivering services including unified communications, data sharing and storage, servers and hosting, premium email services and managed desktops. The business is built on the premise that technology is meant to make business easier, not harder and clients should not be forced to buy software, hardware and services on a one size fits all basis. For more information, please visit www.aseit.com.au.

About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency. Discover NetApp's passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at www.cisco.com.au. For ongoing news from Australia and New Zealand, please go to newsroom.cisco.com/anz.

About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualization, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual datacenters for IT. More than 230,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. www.citrix.com/lang/English/home.asp

Media Contact:
Bas Bolyn
Max Australia
+61 (0)2 9954 3492
+61 (0)447 486 195
bas.bolyn@maxaustralia.com.au

NetApp, the NetApp logo, and Go further, faster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.