Nebraska Consultancy Launches Echo2 Management Business

Published: October 17, 2006

by Alex Woodie

MSI Systems Integrators will monitor and manage the OS/400 high availability environments of customers that use iTera's Echo2 high availability software as the result of an agreement the two companies announced last week.

The service, which iTera is billing as a "utility-based, managed availability offering," is available to Echo2 users in the central and Western United States, according to iTera.

MSI, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, has wide-ranging expertise and offers IT services in a number of areas, including all IBM servers, Microsoft Windows, network services, storage hardware and software, application development, business intelligence, and data center facilities design and management.

Now, MSI customers can expect one more area of expertise from the company: remote monitoring and management of Echo2 high availability environments. "Customers can now take advantage of MSI's expertise on the System i platform to manage the availability of critical workloads by leveraging highly experienced and iTera-trained staff," says Dan NeVille, president and chief executive officer of iTera.

In addition to 24/7 monitoring of Echo2 customers' high availability environments from MSI's network operations center, the company will provide monthly management switch-readiness reports and perform regular role swaps.

Jim Simpson, president and CEO, MSI Systems Integrators, says Echo2 customers can save money and get service level assurances if they switch from managing Echo2 in-house to letting MSI do it for them. "Combining our cross-platform management offerings with iTera's software creates an excellent utility option for companies considering high availability and data protection solutions," he says.