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Konica Minolta launches Cloud Data Centre Services

Thursday 15. July 2021 - The ability to use on-demand, scalable cloud models to achieve cost efficiency and business continuity is providing the impetus for organisations to rapidly accelerate their digital business transformation plans.1

This Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) package enables organisations to reduce costs and effort relating to their IT infrastructure while maximising security
The need to use cloud as part of digital transformation journeys is indisputable. Under the name Konica Minolta Cloud Data Centre Services, Konica Minolta is therefore now adding the important Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) component to its cloud portfolio, giving its customers the opportunity to move their IT infrastructure to the cloud and place responsibility in the hands of Konica Minolta. This relieves IT teams of duties concerning physical computing, storage and network infrastructure and allows them to focus more on innovative tasks that drive the digital transformation of their organisation. The service is being gradually introduced to all European markets.
Reduction of investment costs for hardware and a transparent budget overview
The more money companies put towards capital expenditures such as on-premise hardware, the less free cash flow remains for the rest of the business, potentially hindering shorter-term operations and customer projects. Unplanned hardware purchases, licensing renewals and infrastructure upgrades can also lead to spiralling budgets that are difficult to grasp.
Using Konica Minolta Cloud Data Centre Services means organisations no longer need to purchase on-site servers, costly data centre space and additional networking equipment. The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) package delivers a virtual IT infrastructure environment, including a virtual network, virtual storage and virtual server resources in Konica Minolta’s own data centres located in Hanover, Germany and Stockholm, Sweden.
Thanks to the cloud, organisations can move to an Op-Ex model and eliminate their expenses associated with new hardware, which improves cash flow. IT spend is made transparent thanks to a consistent monthly rate and the ability to efficiently scale up or down as required.
Protection against data loss and unauthorised data access, as well as ensuring GDPR compliance
On-premise storage solutions can be susceptible to risks such as power failure, fire, theft and loss of connectivity. Downtime and data loss can make it impossible for companies to operate effectively and can cause catastrophic issues if client or organisation information is lost or compromised.
Konica Minolta’s data centre in Germany is certified in accordance with ISO27001 and DIN EN 50600, meeting the highest security standards and ensuring compliance with GDPR guidelines. The data centre in Sweden is currently being expanded: When the construction work is completed towards the end of this year, it will meet the highest requirements of the MSB (The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency) and have the highest security classification (3).
Currently, the data centre in Germany is divided into five security zones, while the Swedish centre is divided into four security zones: Once the construction work in Sweden is complete, this number will increase to five. Access is governed by a comprehensive access management concept and requires different levels of authentication to walk through the zones. To ensure that only those with the appropriate authorisation are granted access to the server equipment, every movement within the data centre is diligently monitored and logged. Alarms are collected within a central repository, and critical incidents are automatically reported and handled based on the SLA.
All customer data is reliably protected thanks to a dedicated continuous backup system. Customers are guaranteed full network isolation on the platform, including their own network segment, routers and firewalls. For even better security, optional micro-segmentation is available via distributed stateful firewall services. This means that instead of only one central firewall, which can consequently represent a single point of failure, the firewall is distributed (“micro-segmented”). In the event of a security breach, the entire system is then not at risk of failure.
All server rooms have a fire resistance of at least 90 minutes and are equipped with an early fire detection system combined with infrared smoke detectors and heat sensors. The installed fire extinguishing system is based on Novec 1230 and provides the highest safety margin. The campus power landscape in Germany is built as an uninterruptible autonomous system combined with fail-safe emergency power generators. The data centre in Sweden has two independent power sources (2N power system) with multi redundant block technology. Thanks to these measures, the generators provide at least 72 (Germany) or 24 (Sweden) hours of independent operation.
“We are very pleased to be able to further expand our range of cloud services packages. In addition to our new Infrastructure as a Service packages, our customers can also complement their cloud services purchased from Konica Minolta with our Software as a Service (SaaS) packages, such as our Cloud Print Services. This gives them the advantage of receiving comprehensive cloud services from a single source, handing over the risk for their entire IT infrastructure to our experts and having only one single point of contact. They also get a cloud environment that is specifically tailored to their needs,” says Stephan Thiele, Portfolio Development Manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. “We are aware of our responsibility when it comes to dealing with limited resources. This is why our data centres use 100% green energy.” The Swedish data centre is also ISO 14000 certified — the German one will soon have this certification as well.