Oncore IT Renews Cloud Backup, DR and IT Managed Services Contract

Oncore IT Ltd has renewed
a three-year contract with 29 Bedford Row
Chambers, a London set of barristers specialising in family and
matrimonial law, to provide an outsourced IT managed service.

This includes Cloud-based backup, DR, server and network hardware, SSL VPN remote
access and 24/7 system monitoring and support.

Founded in the 1940s, 29 Bedford Row Chambers comprises 53 barristers and ten
silks supported by a team of 10 clerks. With high rankings in the Legal 500,
Chambers & Partners and Legal Experts, it is recognised in the field of
family law working on cases including divorce and matrimonial finance, child
abduction and adoption, inheritance, domestic violence and cohabitation.

Maggie Rogers, 29 Bedford Row’s IT supervisor, says: "We have a team at Oncore IT looking after our environment continually.
Their engineers are technically very good, helpful and responsive, so in terms
of renewing our agreement, it’s been very much a case of if it isn’t broken
don’t fix it."

As part of the contract, Oncore IT will deploy three new HP Proliant servers to
run file and print services, email, and a chambers management system from Bar
Squared called LEX. This underpins the organisation and has a variety of
modules to cover barrister diary management, appointment booking, case and
document management, along with time recording and billing.

System uptime – especially with LEX – is crucial otherwise the chambers would
be completely blind – barristers wouldn’t know which courts to go to, the
papers required, nor would its clerks. An IT outage could therefore have a big
impact on the chambers’ reputation hence the steps taken to manage systems
appropriately.

Rogers adds: "While barristers pay
for their own desktop computers, the chambers provides IT infrastructure,
network connectivity and support, and this is covered by the chambers
percentage barristers pay from their total income. We consequently have a
commitment to them to ensure systems availability."

To guarantee this, Oncore IT has deployed an Asigra, Inc.-based cloud backup solution
which stores chambers’ data offsite at Oncore IT’s secure
data centre in London, replicated to its Amsterdam facility for resilience. One
Asigra agent has been installed at 29 Bedford Row which transmits data back to
the Oncore IT.

Furthermore, Backup Lifecycle Management principals have been utilised to
enable data to be tiered and then restored within a time period appropriate to
its value within the organisation.

To enhance this, should production servers on site fail, Oncore IT will restore data onto its virtual server environment so that 29 Bedford
Row Chambers can continue operation, with remote access then provided by SSL
VPN technology.

Paul Cook, Oncore IT’s sales and marketing director, concludes: "Our relationship with 29 Bedford Row now
dates back well over 10 years. Clients renew contracts long term only if they
get value for money and a solid service from a supportive and attentive partner
which is what we deliver day in day out."