qirx has been recognized by APAC CIOOutlook Magazine as the recipient of “,” based on our proprietary methodology, reflecting its position in the industry. This profile has been developed by the APAC CIOOutlook research and editorial team based on insights from an interview with Nick Winch.

qirx
Winning Over the Virtualization Market as a Credible VMware Partner

Nick Winch, General Manager

The concept of virtualization emerged almost five decades ago, to allow a single host computer to create and run one or more virtual environments, which today witnesses great usage among global businesses. It’s a widely used technology that has delved smoothly into the business ecosystem ensuring a number of benefits including hardware independence, reduced costs and increased efficiency. And that’s why this innovative technology has gained momentum among businesses that have vast IT resources. Since 1960s when the world was introduced to the first virtual machine to this day when virtualization initiatives hold great value among IT strategies of organizations, it has under gone immense transformation. The technology, in this new and productive era of cloud computing, is driven by the need for cost management and enhanced agility. As reported by a Gartner research, CIOs can see 20-50 percent cost savings for their organizations, as well as increased flexibility, speed and improved quality of service with virtualization. Another survey by Accenture suggests that businesses that have already pursued network virtualization are already seeing cost reductions averaging 25 percent. If these figures are to be believed, the future seems to be holding a great scope for virtualization.

Qirx in a Box provides strategic framework and vision for the Executive level, methodologies to manage at the Planning and Operational level and a toolkit for implementation at the Technical level.

An organization that was adept in identifying virtualization as a capable technology considering the growing IT needs of businesses over a decade ago is Qirx. When the industry was still trying to develop faith in this technology, Australia based Qirx had already started implementing the technology. Founded in 2000, Qirx initially forayed into the market as a professional services company and soon found itself inclined towards exploring virtualization. The company had its first virtual deployment for the Australian Department of Industry in 2003, following which it carried out its first virtual data center deployment in 2004. During that phase, the Qirx team grew clear on its agenda and shortly associated with VMware, the leading virtualization technology provider and became a VMware Partner in 2006 and a VMware Accredited Consultant (VAC) Partner in 2008. Detailing the company’s association with VMware, Nick Winch, General Manager, Qirx, specifies, “We continued to grow our partnership with VMware and became a Premier Partner in 2012. Qirx has served on the APJ Partner Advisory Council for three years. In 2014 Qirx became a VMware Technical Alliance Program partner with the advent of Qirx in a Box.” Another major move initiated by the company in 2009 was the introduction of its product portfolio, which also earned it the status of a solutions provider. Qirx consultants bring along the expertise in hardware infrastructure, software installation & configuration, and management. Besides providing assistance for IT Virtualisation, they also provide support for web technologies, client server technologies, and networking.

A Specialised Vmware Solutions Provider

Qirx provides the entire VMware SDDC spectrum of virtualization solutions. It holds great technical proficiency in Virtualization, Disaster Recovery, End User Computing, Performance, Security & Management and Automation. “From 2000 to 2009, Qirx only provided professional services with a major focus on VMware. Since then we have expanded to provide complete solutions,” adds Nick.

The organization has successfully deployed VMware products for over a decade. While deploying these products, the Qirx team doesn’t just ensure the highest possible degree of perfection, but also assures access to highly skilled workforce with extensive field experience across a diverse range of corporate, educational and government clients along with well-developed and systemised IP to facilitate consistent repeatability in outcomes and to reduce risk. The company also seeks to transfer its deep technical skills and extensive field experience through Qirx in a Box, a virtual consultant that was developed by Qirx as an independent mentor to help other organizations to be able to design, deliver and support all aspects of the VMware SDDC. It has also been awarded as the VMware Rising Star 2013, which speaks well of its expertise as a VMware partner.

Qirx in a Box

One of the company’s key offerings, Qirx in a Box was initially designed to address the shortage of skilled and experienced technical staff in emerging markets. It was designed with the vision to share the knowledge, experience, IP and know-how developed over hundreds of successful cloud deployments. Another key aspect that led the company to develop Qirx in a Box was to help clients become knowledgeable about the transformation process so that they can acquire the best solution to meet their specific requirements. It was also meant to enable businesses build a robust, resilient and reliable environment that supports their business needs and one that assists in making them more profitable. Defining it further, Nick details, “Qirx in a Box provides strategic frame work and vision for the Executive level, methodologies to manage at the Planning and Operational level and a tool kit for implementation at the Technical level. It does this across the 6 cloud life cycle pillars.”

By developing Qirx in a Box, the organization has taken up a mentoring role helping other organizations deliver high quality cloud solutions. That’s why it enjoys great usage among businesses with assurance of smooth cloud implementations and enhanced profitability. At present, Qirx in a Box is distributed in Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand and ASEAN by Ingram Micro and in the USA and Canada by Arrow ECS. Additionally, Qirx is working towards expanding its distribution to provide global coverage by associating with additional technical partners to help deliver the high quality cloud solutions facilitated by Qirx in a Box.

Combining Technological Innovation and Competitiveness

Ever since its early years of existence, Qirx has been innovating with technologies to ensure that it is capable enough to deliver excellence to its clients. Qirx has always been an early adopter of technologies as demonstrated by its earliest deployment of VMware in 2003 to facilitate the 300km relocation of a secure data centre for a government client. This was long before VMware became a mainstream technology in the Australian market. Since then, the company has been continuously focusing on investigating new and emerging technologies to ensure that it has the best solutions to cater to its clients’ needs. “We have adopted the approach of offering something different to our competitors and this has given us and more importantly our clients a competitive edge in the market space. To demonstrate the effectiveness of working this way, more than 80 percent of our revenue comes from repeat business from our clients,” elaborates Nick.

In an effort to strengthen its service and product portfolio, Qirx has also partnered with some other leading players such as Nutanix, River bed, NetApp, Veeam, Extreme Networks and more. Apart from associating with the best in the industry, the organization has also invested heavily in the training of its technical staff. It has also developed systems and IP to facilitate rapid deployment of solutions while reducing the risks. “Through our deep commitment to ongoing certification and training of our technical staff, Qirx has achieved the breadth and depth of knowledge required to implement solutions spanning all of the vendor technology stacks including; VMware, NetApp, Veeam, Nutanix, Brocade, IBM, Lenovo, Hitachi Data Systems, Riverbed and more,” adds Nick.

The Spirit to Make a Difference
Under the leadership of Denis Stevens, the Founding and Managing Director of the company, the Qirx team runs an annual rally in a forest approximately 20km from the nearest mobile network tower. Other than indulging in the activities such as high speed rides in rally cars, Qirx uses this event to demonstrate mobility solutions working in real time away the official setup. Each year, the rally is set to have a different technical focus and in the past, the organization has had demonstrations involving VMware, Nutanix, Riverbed, NetApp, Veeam, Extreme Networks and others. Apart from receiving great response from the clients, such exciting events have proven to be extremely effective in displaying the capability of the technologies involved and the flexibility of the solutions offered by Qirx.

With a futuristic vision and capable solutions, Qirx has come a long way in the ICT segment. Over the years, the company has left no stone unturned to ensure that every client that the company associates with, is assured of an impressive experience thus forming a great lifelong alliance. Further, owing to its decade long history and specialisation in VMware, Qirx has been able to build a vast client base which includes SMB organisations of 20 personnel through educational institutions with many hundreds of users up to government departments with thousands of staff. “Each client has unique requirements and our approach to satisfying these requirements is encapsulated in Qirx in a Box. Qirx has recently completed a 2,000 seat roll out of virtual desktops for the Australian Department of Treasury,” proudly adds Nick, winding up the interview.