SMA Financial completes data centre upgrade to increase bureau service capacity and security
28 May, 2009
Ultra secure primary data centre at The Bunker enhanced to cope with future growth in SWIFT traffic
SMA Financial (www.sma.co.uk), SWIFT Regional partner for UK, Eire, Channel Islands and the Nordics today announced that it has completed an infrastructure upgrade at its primary data centre which is housed in The Bunker, an ultra secure facility. The resulting capacity increase will support future growth of the SMA Bureau Service whilst providing the very highest levels of security and resilience which is essential in today’s demanding environment where very high levels of service uptime are required.
SMA’s investment in this infrastructure ensures that it can maintain high levels of service to customers connecting to the Bureau Service for critical financial messaging whilst building systems for the future which can accommodate significant growth in the use of SWIFT and other messaging traffic. In the unlikely event of the primary centre becoming unavailable, Bureau Service operations are switched to SMA’s secondary site, ensuring there is minimal interruption to business and service continuity for bureau customers.
SMA has three data centres with the primary location housed at The Bunker, an ex-Ministry of Defence facility built to house the nation’s critical infrastructure. It is located outside of London, to minimise the risks posed by the threat of terrorist attacks and urban disaster. The facility is ISO27001 accredited and reduces the risk of external interruption such as hacking or viruses that can compromise the availability of business critical applications.
Christian Antrobus, Chief Information Officer, SMA Financial said, “The SMA Bureau Service is a critical piece of infrastructure for our clients. That’s why we have chosen one of the country’s most secure locations for our data centre to support this. We have increased the capacity and throughput for the bureau and The Bunker offers total peace of mind over the bureau’s security, service uptime and availability. Every customer that we have taken to The Bunker has been impressed with the security and resilience of the facility.”
The Bunker ensures that the SMA Bureau Service operates and is maintained under the strictest possible security standards. SMA has its own dedicated suite at The Bunker with physical access restricted to a list of approved personnel. Uninterruptible power supplies and dedicated generators allied to multiple onsite ISPs, carriers and telcos provide consistent connectivity to SWIFT and other external networks.
Willoughby Chapman, UK Sales Manager, The Bunker Secure Hosting commented, “Any company looking for outsourced SWIFT connectivity has to ensure its chosen supplier can provide a bureau service that is backed up by a highly secure data centre. Working with SMA ensures we can leverage our experienced in offering ultra secure data centre services to the financial industry with unequalled security and redundancy.”
Antrobus concluded, “I have complete confidence that SMA is working with the best partner for secure data centre services. I am very pleased with every aspect of The Bunker particularly the attention to detail around security of the personnel and the resilience of the systems that are housed there. The Bunker allows us to concentrate on offering outsourced services to our clients, safe in the knowledge that we are operating to the highest standards of business and service continuity.”
About SMA Financial
Founded in 1995, SMA Financial has established its leadership as a source of specialist knowledge and expertise in the financial services industry providing SWIFT services, product and support. SMA Financial is the SWIFT Regional Partner for UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and the Nordics. It is the most extensively SWIFT accredited partner with over 300 successful implementations with banks, corporates and other financial institutions including more than 100 active SWIFT Service Bureau users. The company provides SWIFT Service Bureau, AML and SystemCare solutions as well as experienced consultancy services. For further information please visit www.sma.co.uk
About The Bunker
The Bunker delivers secure managed hosting and data centre solutions from within Europe’s most secure data centre.
Our Data Centres, which are outside the M25 yet within easy reach of London, are ex-military Nuclear Bunkers purpose built to house the UK’s air defence systems. We run 24/7/365 and our NOC monitors systems both nationally and internationally and is staffed around the clock by system and network engineers and security staff.
Our technical leaders are recognised experts in security and cryptography, renowned for their work on Apache-SSL. The Bunker is ISO 27001 accredited and we are a Microsoft Gold Partner. We use Open Source software where appropriate as we believe it can offer great benefits in security, stability and cost effectiveness. Through our in house networks team and via close working relationships with a number of selected network providers, we deliver a multi-homed, no single point of failure transit network between our sites and the Internet.
The Bunker works with over 130 clients, large and small. Our clients are Financial Services Organisations, Technology companies, local government and other regulated businesses that value a premium service built around security.
Our service is proactive, high quality, sometimes innovative, but always practical, responsive and secure. We never forget the enormous trust our clients vest in us. As an organisation we understand that our success relies upon our reputation and our reputation is earned by continuing to fulfil this trust and afford peace of mind.
The Bunker Protocol™
All Bunker-based applications are protected by The Bunker Protocol™, our proprietary, Ultra* Secure process framework that includes:
Military-Grade Data Centres – in our underground bunker outside the M25 in Kent and our mirror facility in Newbury, both protected by integrated processes for physical, digital and human security
Hardened Source™ – Our unique combination of state-of-the-art, best of breed mechanical and electrical infrastructure technologies. Security isn’t bolted on: its built in at source
Tierless Support™ – no ‘first tier helpdesk’; tierless support – direct 24/7 access to qualified hands-on support teams
