Cloud solutions: The key to online success?
André Goldstein, Managing Director at LohnDialog talks in an interview about the joint collaboration and the challenges the company faced in the area of hosting.
Managing Director LohnDialog
ASTRUM IT: How did the idea of offering hosting to your customers come about?
André Goldstein: The idea of offering our SBS software to customers in SBS payroll and accounting on an Internet basis was born in the early 2000s. However, the delivery of new operating system variants with complex installations such as Windows Terminal Server already overtaxed some administrators at that time.
ASTRUM IT: What challenges did you expect in the area of hosting?
André Goldstein: At that time, Novell and Citrix were already supplying software tools for secure and high-performance remote access to terminal servers. The word ASP and the offers for Application Service Providing, the use of complex applications in a rental model, became “socially acceptable” and in demand during these years. However, the initial discussions with data center providers and their price and technology offers at the annual CeBIT events, among others, were more confusing than our strategic idea of “building ASP” finding external support. It was also clear during this design phase that the fulfillment of data protection requirements had to be given great importance in order to convince potential customers. Many of the providers we contacted had not yet given the issue any substantial thought.
ASTRUM IT: What were the reasons for LohnDialog to decide on a partnership with ASTRUM IT back then?
André Goldstein: In 2009, the idea of an ASP platform offering for our SBS software customers was given new impetus by the takeover of a company. The high-performance and stable access to our central servers at the Berlin location from another location was not only slow due to limited internet connection speeds, but also not really functional 365 days/24 hours due to only one admin.
Discussions and contacts with a limited group of providers due to the requirements were intensified. This is how we came into contact with ASTRUM IT. We immediately had the feeling that a professional team here understood our requirements for the system and also responded to our necessary configuration requests. More importantly, however, the initial offers already took into account our essential requirements for data security and data protection, confirming our impression that they have been successfully supporting customers with ASP systems for several years. This was not the case with all providers. Even one of the first interested parties insisted on a data protection inspection with their data protection officer, which was no problem for ASTRUM IT and all requirements were met.
ASTRUM IT: What exactly do you appreciate about ASTRUM IT and the collaboration?
André Goldstein:
After 15 years, we are more than satisfied with the security and above all the stability of hosting at ASTRUM IT. Technically necessary updates and sensible improvements are implemented with foresight. Necessary complete server relocations to new technology are carried out sufficiently in advance at the weekend and on Monday the new technology is running again at the new technical level without any significant disruptions. Even disruptions that can arise due to the complexity of the operating system and user layer are dealt with in a targeted manner through the mutual exchange of information.
Put simply, it is a relaxed collaboration that is always at the necessary technical level. This stability of accessibility is, among other things, our basis for the satisfaction of our customers and thus for continuous customer growth.
We would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank the entire ASTRUM IT team and recommend external hosting!
ASTRUM IT: Thank you very much for the interesting interview Mr. Goldstein!
