Rafte & Company Rolls Out Innovative Hybrid Cloud Computing and Collocation Hosting Solutions

HOUSTON, Jan. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Rafte & Company, a leading provider of business and technology consulting services for law firms and other professional services firms, today announced that it is deploying two innovative hybrid cloud computing solutions for Hale-Mills Construction, one of the construction industry's preeminent builders of detention facilities and government complexes, and the Houston Zoo, a fun, unique, and inspirational experience fostering appreciation, knowledge, and care for the natural world.

Hybrid Cloud and Collocation Solution for Hale-Mills Construction

Hale-Mills Construction faced a challenge. Half of their workforce works virtually on job sites and the other half of their workforce work at the Hale-Mills' home office. Therefore, remote team collaboration is core to keeping projects on time and within budget. To add complexity to their technology needs, in order to meet time-sensitive deadlines, system up time is critical and cannot be compromised and highly confidential client project information cannot risk getting into the wrong hands. Hale-Mills wanted to take advantage of the cost savings of replicated cloud servers, but their data had to be housed strictly on their own storage devices. Rafte & Company to architect and deliver a semi-private cloud and collocation solution that includes: cost-effective hosted application servers, co-located Storage Area Network (SAN) for the storage and management of the project data, and a high-speed fiber optic metro-ethernet line between their Houston office and the data center. "To tell you the truth, we knew what we wanted to accomplish, but we thought that it was going to be impossible to deliver. I have personally worked with Rafte & Company for several years, so I knew that if anyone could find a solution they could. We are very pleased that the resulting solution is tuned to meet all of our objectives," said Vice President for Hale-Mills, Eric Cohen.

High-Speed Fiber Optic Internet Service, Cloud and Hosted Solution for Houston Zoo

With the growth of the Houston Zoo, they reported a record attendance of over 1.7 million guests in the past year; the resulting demand on their legacy IT infrastructure outgrew their compute capacity, Internet bandwidth, floor space and cooling volume. Since the Houston Zoo's revenue is focused on serving the community, each dollar spent needs to be cost-effective. Rafte & Company to install a high-speed fiber optic Internet line on the Houston Zoo campus and is scheduled to complete the data center migration to a co-located center.  The Houston Zoo's Microsoft Exchange Server will be cloud hosted. Over time, additional software applications will be migrated to the cloud. "Rafte & Company has supported the Houston Zoo with strategic IT consulting and computer software training for nearly a decade, so their understanding of our business and use of technology was very beneficial. Their IT solution is extremely cost-effective, yet is scalable to grow with us today and in the future," said Chief Financial Officer, for the Houston Zoo, Leslie Forestier.

About Rafte & Company

Established in 1983 with headquarters in Houston, Texas; Rafte & Company specializes in designing, implementing and managing strategic business and technology consulting solutions, remote collaboration systems, document management software solutions, legal software support, IT design and management services. To inquire about Rafte & Company business consulting, IT consulting and hosted solutions, contact Rafte & Company toll-free at (800) 396-9390 or contact Rafte & Company through their website at www.rafte.com/contact.

SOURCE Rafte & Company