1. Case Study
AlertBoot Improves Availability
and Saves 75 Percent By
Migrating to the OpSource Cloud
Case Study Highlights “Thanks in large part to OpSource, we’ve been able to trim our
operating expenses by more than 75% and enable us to focus on
• Cost-effective, scalable disk
encryption and laptop data
product innovation instead of maintenance.”
security for individuals and
organizations. Tim Maliyil
Chief Executive Officer
• Challenge: Reduce costs while
maintaining high availability AlertBoot Secure Encryption for End-point Computers
and control. through the Cloud
AlertBoot offers a web-based suite of data security tools for individuals
• Solution: OpSource Cloud and organizations that need cost-effective, scalable disk encryption and
Hosting. laptop data security. As a managed service, AlertBoot software makes
• OpSource was selected as the it easy to protect data, while eliminating the IT costs associated with
cloud hosting provider based on implementing and managing an “in-house” data encryption and security
reliability, control, and cost. solution. AlertBoot:
• Provides data at rest protection using industry-leading disk encryption
with pre-boot authentication based on the SafeGuard Enterprise
Security Engine from Sophos.
• Offloads end-user encryption key management, end-user support, and
device management through a web-based console.
• Limits a user’s ability to transfer data to removable devices and
drives and synchronizes with devices remotely for easy configuration,
deployment, and reporting.
• Offers customizable reporting designed to help achieve regulatory
and audit compliance and scales quickly and easily with cost-effective
licensing.
• Lets users protect files and portable USB keys so they stay encrypted
regardless of where they go.
Challenge: Reduce Costs While Maintaining Reliability
and Control
AlertBoot serves more than 4,000 retail endpoints and protects more
than 200,000 computers worldwide. It is critical that AlertBoot’s web
servers and applications are available 100 percent of the time. “If our
systems went down, we could prevent end-users from resetting their
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. ALERTBOOT IMPROvES AvAILABILITy And SAvES 75 PERCEnT By
Migrating tO the OpSOUrce cLOUd
password, locking them out of give us a high level of control,
their systems,” says Tim Maliyil, while taking away the headaches
AlertBoot’s CEO. of managing it,” says Maliyil.
In addition, AlertBoot collects Solution
compliance data for its enterprise Over a period of months, Maliyil
customers and makes it available researched a number of cloud
through on-line reports. hosting providers, going so far as
“Prolonged downtime could make to verify datacenter locations and
us and our customers fall out of physically look at the equipment.
compliance with data security Some providers used equipment
regulations,” says Maliyil. Maliyil wasn’t familiar with,
“Since going live with the but one provider stood out.
Ensuring that level of systems The OpSource Cloud used the
OpSource Cloud, we’ve not
reliability required considerable same high-quality vendors that
experienced any downtime.
resources. “We had a datacenter AlertBoot relied on and trusted
They’ve been up 100 percent
with at least $2 million in for its own private cloud, Cisco,
of the time with no issues.” equipment and four or five vMware and EMC.
full-time IT staff,” recalls Maliyil.
Tim Maliyil
CEO All that equipment ran at half OpSource also provided its
capacity because AlertBoot clients with a high level of
maintained a 100-percent control. Others offered too much
redundancy as an insurance abstraction from the customer.
policy. The effort was successful. “I like complete control over my
Over a ten-year period, AlertBoot infrastructure, and I’m willing to
consistently achieved five-nines give up some of it, but not to the
of uptime – 100 percent in some point where I’m left in the dark
years. But the cost and stress of when something goes down,”
managing this environment was says Maliyil.
taking its toll.
Convinced that OpSource might
In early 2010, with a multi- be the right choice, Maliyil set
million dollar hardware refresh up a rigorous test environment.
cycle coming up, Maliyil became “We made virtual machines
interested in Infrastructure as a crash, brought systems down,
Service (IaaS) offered through killed connectivity, and we
a public cloud hosting provider. called OpSource support. They
AlertBoot had been running on were there 24/7 to support us. It
a private cloud since 2006 and was was a good six weeks of worst-
comfortable with virtualization. case scenario testing before we
“Between the capital expense made the decision to migrate
and the stress on our IT staff and our production systems to the
developers, we spent a good OpSource Cloud.”
deal of our money and a lot of
manhours keeping our systems up AlertBoot scheduled the cutover
and running. What we needed was for August 1, 2010. “I was anxious,
a cloud hosting provider that could hadn’t slept for 36 hours worrying
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. ALERTBOOT IMPROvES AvAILABILITy And SAvES 75 PERCEnT By
Migrating tO the OpSOUrce cLOUd
about glitches and customer experienced a slowdown. Maliyil
complaints. We flipped the switch. had budgeted a 100-percent
Our customers had no idea what increase in hosting expenses for
had happened. OpSource came the added servers. Instead, the
through with flying colors.” increase was just 30 percent. “It
Today OpSource provides only spun up what we needed,”
AlertBoot with approximately says Maliyil. “It was the smartest
100 virtual servers in addition to use of our money during the
network connectivity and storage. Holiday season.”
More recently, OpSource Handing over AlertBoot’s
introduced Maliyil to the infrastructure to OpSource hasn’t
ability to scale resources up deprived Maliyil of the control he
and down quickly and easily wanted. “One of the key features
through an OpSource application that OpSource offers is their
programming interface (API). management console, which gives
AlertBoot has taken advantage me the control and visibility I was
of this feature. Whenever server looking for.”
performance slows, additional
servers are automatically spun Additionally, Maliyil said, “Rather
up using the API, and spun down than continuing to have to spend
when they are no longer needed. capital to buy equipment to
enable our growth, we were
Impact: Reliability, Scalability, able to reduce our operating
Control, and Cost costs and capital requirements.
The single most important OpSource’s reliability and
requirement for both AlertBoot expertise have completely
and its customers was reliability. alleviated our concerns about
Any downtime could have a performance and availability.
serious impact on customer The business value provided
satisfaction and the bottom by OpSource Cloud Hosting is
line. “Since going live with the unparalleled in the industry.”
OpSource Cloud, we’ve not
experienced any downtime. the cost efficiencies of the
They’ve been up 100 percent OpSource Cloud have proven
of the time with no issues,” out for Maliyil. “Thanks in
proclaims Maliyil. large part to OpSource, we’ve
been able to trim our operating
The ability to quickly spin up expenses by more than $85,000
additional servers came in handy a month and enable us to
during the Holiday season in focus on product innovation
2010. Retail sales volume typically instead of maintenance. That
doubles at that time each year. represents a 75% reduction in
Thanks to the OpSource API, the operating expenses.”
point-of-sale application never
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.

4. ALERTBOOT IMPROvES AvAILABILITy And SAvES 75 PERCEnT By
Migrating tO the OpSOUrce cLOUd
About AlertBoot
alertBoot offers cloud-based full disk encryption, USB drive encryption and a comprehensive suite of
disk security solutions as a centralized, managed service for companies of all sizes. By encrypting fixed
and external hard disks and removable media, AlertBoot prevents unauthorized access to mobile and
stationary endpoint devices. Headquartered in Las vegas, AlertBoot offers a cost-effective, web-based
secure full disk encryption service for organizations that want highly scalable, easy-to-deploy hard disk
encryption and laptop data security. For more information about AlertBoot, follow @AlertBoot on
Twitter, visit AlertBoot’s Facebook fan page or view the youTube channel.
About OpSource
Founded in 2002, OpSource provides cloud and managed hosting solutions that enable businesses to
accelerate growth and scale operations while controlling costs and reducing IT infrastructure support
risks. headquartered in Santa clara, with operations in california, Virginia, the UK, ireland, and india,
more than 600 enterprises, service providers and Software-as-a-Service ISvs rely on OpSource’s expertise,
experience and cloud automation technology to operate high-availability, business-critical hosting
environments. OpSource is a dimension data company. www.opsource.net.
Corporate Headquarters
5201 great america parkway, Suite 120, Santa clara, ca 95054, 1-800-664-9973 (USa)
+353 1 661 9979 (EMEA), sales@opsource.net, www.opsource.net
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.