Services

Consultancy

Consensus offers a range of key consultancy services designed to help customers transform technology into business solutions. These solutions based on technology from key vendors like: Microsoft, HP, EMC, VMware, Cisco, Symantec, Checkpoint any many more.

These services encompass all the key stages of the IT project lifecycle, including: Evaluation, Design, Pilot, Implementation and Support.

Project Management

Storage Area Networks (SAN)

Server Consolidation

Blade Infrastructure: Consensus Technologies believe Blade infrastructure is superbly designed to take advantage of virtualisation technology. By utilising HP Proliant half-height servers, up-to sixteen servers can be installed within a c-Class Blade System enclosure. Each half-height server keeps the same flexibility, power management and system control as full-height blade, and with support for hot-plug hard drives, large memory capacity , multiple expansion slots and the latest generation of processors the Proliant is an optimal choice for virtual infrastructure. The HP c-Class Blade system enclosure brings additional benefits to traditional rack-and-stack approach, these benefits are:

Cost: HP Blade System features a consolidated design that is both more affordable to buy and more efficient to own than conventional infrastructure. Operations are streamlined through standardized components and management interfaces, yielding long term efficiencies unattainable with scattered systems. By pooling and sharing power, cooling, and network; and eliminating the need for other components, the HP Blade System can measurably reduce acquisition costs and increase utilization.

Change Ready: HP Blade System brings agility to IT. Blade servers, storage, and other modular components can be easily added or removed without having to power down making it easier for IT to respond to business requirements. HP Blade System c-Class is an efficiently designed and integrated system that makes the most of every square inch and that can be setup or reconfigured easily. HP provides a common and intuitive interface to monitor and control all HP Blade System resources - server, storage, network, power and cooling.

Energy: HP Blade System offers one screen to see and understand the power consumption, heat output, and cooling capacity of your HP Blade System environment. The Onboard Administrator monitors the infrastructure, advises repairs, and warns of impending power and cooling issues. Among the many features that make HP Blade System the ideal choice for energy conscious environments:

• Cooling-optimized enclosure and blades - Redundant and scalable, HP PARSEC cooling architecture dissipates heat quickly, with lower CFM levels needed, in any configuration, enabling denser configurations.
• HP Active Cool Fans - Patented fans, designed to create tropical-storm winds, automatically deliver required cooling to match changing demands and environmental conditions at power levels far lower than traditional fans.
• HP Modular Cooling System - When added to an HP Blade System, this water-cooled rack technology triples the cooling capacity of a standard rack without increasing the heat load of your data center.
• Dynamic Power Saver - Automatically shifts power load for maximum power supply efficiency and reliability.
• Power/Thermal Regulator - Preset power and thermal thresholds ensure that your environment will self-regulate to maintain acceptable consumption output and thermal conditions.
• Future-proof power strategy - Power supplies designed in concert with Intel® and AMDTM processor roadmaps keep pace with the evolution of your computing environment.

Time Smart :If you are connected, HP Blade System offers total resource control from anywhere at any time. Simplified provisioning and management in a virtual environment mean transparency when moving server resources between physical and virtual machines. The consolidated nature of HP Blade System allows you to make the most of your IT resources. Use HP Blade System to centralize your most knowledgeable IT staff, giving them the ability to quickly leverage each other and to monitor, manage and control remote sites from one location.

Disaster Recovery

The reality of data loss and critical system downtime is a costly experience in both time and money yet it is something which most organisations go through at some point. We have experience with the design and implementation of IT infrastructure Disaster Recovery (DR) solutions and we work very closely with our customers to make sure their experience of disruption is at an absolute minimum.

When designing and developing IT infrastructure DR solutions in conjunction with our customers, we will look to leverages existing technology investments as well assisting with the selection and implementation of appropriate complementary products and technologies. Our consultants are highly experienced and qualified to provide tailored DR solutions for your business and typical solutions include:

• Backup Solutions
  Back Exec, Netback up and Symantec are leading backup solutions. The products suite facilitates data protection for both physical and virtual systems providing business critical data recovery.
• Data Replication Solutions
  Deployment of replication technologies such Double-Take and Neverfail deliver high functionality and ease of use. Double-Take provides real-time data replication and failover for your physical or virtual servers whilst Neverfail replicates data from active to passive servers through a unique cloning process. These products can capture changes in real time and replicate them to your DR systems providing proven, flexible, and reliable data protection and failover for DR and Business Continuity. These solutions can also enable users to stay connected to applications during IT activities that require planned downtime, such as migrations, upgrades, maintenance, and virtualisation.
• Storage Solutions
  HP, EMC and NetApp. Products from these vendors enable us to design and deploy a wide range of storage solutions that facilitate DR through data replication and synchronisation. Our consultants have extensive experience and knowledge of these technologies allowing us to provide tailored solutions for your DR requirements.
• Virtualisation Solutions
  As a partner to all of the leading vendors of virtualisation solutions, Consensus will work closely with these technologies to design and deliver highly available virtual infrastructures. DR functionality is provided through the use of products such as; VMware Site Replication Manager and Visioncore ESX Replicator which provide extensive features ideally suited to most DR requirements.

Virtualisation

Virtualisation is a proven software technology that is rapidly transforming the IT landscape and fundamentally changing the way that people compute. Today's powerful computer hardware was originally designed to run only a single operating system and a single application, but Virtualisation breaks that bond, making it possible to run multiple operating systems and multiple applications on the same computer at the same time, increasing the utilisation and flexibility of hardware. Virtualisation is a technology that can benefit anyone who uses a computer, from IT professionals and Mac enthusiasts to commercial businesses and government organisations. Join the millions of people around the world who use Virtualisation to save time, money and energy while achieving more with the computer hardware they already own.

Desktop Virtualisation

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a method of providing the ultimate in roaming Windows desktops whilst maintaining Desktop Standardisation and Security. The Desktop is delivered over a network and provides a Standard Desktop for all for office workers (both local and remote) from simple Users through to Power Users and Administrators. A complete DDE/VDI solution comprises of several components; a Windows-based access device (Physical Client), a network connection (Local or Remote), desktop delivery infrastructure, desktop experience management tools (Application Layer and Desktop Management) and a Windows desktop (Virtual Desktop Layer).

• VMware Virtual Desktop Manager
• With VMware VDI, you get the proven VMware Infrastructure 3 software along with VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM), an enterprise-class desktop management server that securely connects users to virtual desktops in the data centre and provides an easy to use web-based interface to manage the centralized environment. VMware VDI provides users with desktop business continuity, high availability and disaster recovery capabilities that until now were available only for mission-critical server applications.

Web Development

All of our production includes custom layout, design and graphics. If you're looking to simply establish an online presence, we can build you a professional, yet simple and informative 'brochure' type site. However, if you're looking to make your site a leading entity of your business, we will build you a complete website and add our marketing touch to help you bring in traffic and convert them to sales. We create exciting flash animations, shopping carts, as well as comprehensive e-commerce solutions, using the latest technologies available.

We design sites for maximum search engine results. Once your site is up and running we will work with you to submit the site to the search engines and major directories.

• Web design and development including ecommerce solutions
• Website redesign
• PSD to XHTML conversions
• Content Management Solutions
• 360 Panoramas
• Marketing and SEO