Edinburgh IT outfit aims to reduce costly downtime

An automated monitoring provider has launched to tackle the problem of IT system failures, estimated to cost UK businesses more than £10 billion a year.

Assure APM chief executive Doug More. Picture: Alex Hewitt

Edinburgh-based Assure APM has teamed up with US tech group Riverbed, to provide round-the-clock system measurement and has already worked with clients including Angus Council, ConocoPhillips and the Scottish Government.

Founder and chief executive Doug More said: “Owners and consumers of business applications are faced with a number of challenges including downtime and poor performance of critical applications, inability to detect problems early and failure to locate and fix recurring performance problems. This frequently has a huge negative effect on the payback from investment in IT.

“Assure puts in place an automated service that ensures all baseline and optimisation criteria are maintained, enabling proactive action to be taken to prevent downtime and unnecessary costs.”

While the system started operating in December 2014 under the FarrPoint Assure banner, it rebranded and officially launched as Assure APM this month.

Among the firms to have used the IT monitoring service is Barchester Healthcare, which runs more than 200 care homes across the UK.

IT director Calum Macleod said: “Using Assure’s technology we were able to pin point exactly where the problems lay within the application and are now working with the vender towards a permanent solution.”

“Their service is exactly what we needed and they tailored their offering to find the root cause of an ongoing undiagnosed problem.”

• Technology recruiter Nine Twenty is planning to open an office in Edinburgh next year after securing a £500,000 asset-based lending facility from commercial finance provider IGF.

Nine Twenty chief executive Gordon Brown said: “IGF Group was a natural choice for us, as we were looking for a business partner, not just a financier. Having the whole team sitting alongside us on our journey to growth has been an enjoyable and exciting experience, providing the support and guidance we have needed.”

Alan Anderson, director of Scotland at IGF, added: “Nine Twenty has an impressive reputation and ambitious growth plans, and has recognised the importance of buying in to its people in order to expand sustainably. We’re extremely pleased that IGF Group could provide not only the finance, but also the advice required to make this a reality.”