According to ControlCircle, the market is experiencing growth as an increased number of companies look to shift from a distributed computing model to a centralised one to better manage IT assets. This is being driven among other things by concerns about security (protection against natural disasters, terrorism and day-to-day burglaries), compliance issues (tougher data retention legislation on, for example, financial services groups), the need for more capacity after increased investment in IT following the flat, post dot.com era, growing online consumer spending, in addition to green issues.

ControlCircle, a City-based data center services company focused on designing, implementing and providing ongoing monitoring and management of mission critical networks and systems, announces the opening of a new Information Office for press and analysts interested in the whole area of data centers and who require commentary from market and technology experts.

ControlCircle offers an end-to-end solution covering data storage, network security, connectivity, hosting and managed services, for blue chip companies and e-commerce sites requiring complete confidence in system uptime and security. And it is the breadth of its managed services (only available to companies if in a data center), SAN and 24/7/365 monitoring and support which sets ControlCircle apart.

Completely vendor neutral, the company has a consultative approach to meet client needs and develops bespoke premium solutions capitalising on a number of strategic relationships with best-of-breed technology suppliers, including: NetApp (storage), Checkpoint (firewalls), Foundry Networks (network infrastructure), HP (servers), Oracle (high availability databases) and Vmware (virtualisation). ControlCircle is one of Level 3's master resellers and one of only three companies in Europe to offer data centers services to Level 3 clients.

Based in Canary Wharf, ControlCircle is privately owned, employs 108 staff and has grown organically since it was founded 7 years ago. In the past three years, it has doubled its installed base winning business from high quality customers who sign long term support contracts of typically 3 to 5 years.

ControlCircle's success is being achieved by being innovative, dynamic and excelling in customer care working for companies such as KPMG, RR Donnelly, Citibank, Sega, Saga, Denton Wilde Sapte and various high profile e-commerce sites such as Betfair, Tradefair Confetti.co.uk, Rightmove.co.uk and Moveme.com.

With 'physical' data center space rented from a variety of partners, ControlCircle has access to space in 94 data centers globally, and has invested in deploying its own 20 gigabit-based Ethernet network ring in London to provide high speed connectivity between 36 points of presence (PoPs).

ControlCircle locates its clients in multiple data centers (run by different companies) for disaster recovery purposes. As a range of partners are used, this approach also mitigates any risks associated with using just one operator should they go out of business.

For example, a ControlCircle customer could use Interxion in London, Level 3 in Frankfurt and GlobalSwitch in Amsterdam all catered for under a single global SLA as required.

Open during normal office hours, the ControlCircle Information Office can support by: - Arranging briefings with senior executives who can provide from the 'coal face' commentary, without hype and hyperbole, about what it is happening today in the data center services market, a compare and contrast of suppliers, views about future trends and so on; - Providing access to customers who can speak openly about their decisions to consolidate their critical IT assets in ControlCircle managed environments; - Offering views and opinions about key technologies deployed in data centers and ControlCircle's work with strategic technology suppliers, covering topic areas including: - Virtualisation; - Utility computing services i.e ControlCircle today offers a Storage On Demand solution based on NetApp technology where clients pay per month per gig used; - 'Greening' of the data center and green equipment choices; - Security (both physical and systems related); - data center asset management; - System monitoring; - Customer service and support.

For further information about ControlCircle, please visit: www.controlcircle.com.