27 August 2008
The City of London has selected Kingston Communications (KC) to provide high speed connections and hosting for its website services.
The website, www.cityoflondon.gov.uk, operates as a central portal through which an average of 160,000 monthly visitors can access local information, services and resources. It serves 9,000 residents, a 340,000-strong working population and UK and foreign visitors, including those looking to relocate.
Providing the Square Mile’s local government with a managed hosting platform of physical and virtual servers, KC is running a point to point high speed connection from its Docklands data centre to the Guildhall and another key location.
Keith Harvey, City of London’s senior business analyst, said that a flexible platform was being implemented to develop the City Corporation’s web presence.
“We are using different servers to support the varied technology being utilised for our contrasting requirements,” said Mr Harvey.
“The team at KC understands what we are trying to achieve and this is a great help in the smooth deployment of this upgrade. They are demonstrating that they are fully committed and this is paying off in a very professional way.”
In addition to information on the financial district’s local government services and an online payment system for customers, the website includes COLLAGE, an image database containing more than 20,000 works of art from its library and Guildhall collections. It also features a facility to apply online for permission to film in the City, which is a major site for location photography and film.
However, City of London’s services go far beyond its core activities of providing local government and police services. The Lord Mayor is an international ambassador for the financial district and City of London is also responsible for the maintenance and management of five London bridges – Tower, Blackfriars, London, Southwark and Millennium – as well as the Barbican Centre, Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest.
Mark Lewis, account director at KC, said that the complex hosting platform, with a mixture of physical and virtual servers, provide the flexibility needed to run the entire website and its back-end applications. “We approached the customer with a solution that was highly tailored to their requirements. Following this deployment, we can easily scale the storage space and connectivity to cope with more services or greater levels of traffic, according to City of London’s future needs.”
KC, part of the KCOM Group, won the contract through the Office of Government Commerce procurement system that helps develop collaborative contracts and ways of working that can be used to save time and money.
KCOM Group PLC provides a range of integrated IT and communications services to businesses, and internet and telecommunications services to selected consumer markets, within the UK.
The Group's portfolio of businesses works with both leading private enterprise customers and public sector organisations. Through its Affiniti, Smart421 and JAM IP brands, the Group delivers solutions covering unified communications, contact centre solutions, data management, applications integration and managed services.
The KCOM Group also includes a regionally-focused business, Kingston Communications, which supports small to medium-sized businesses. Through its KC and Eclipse brands, the business offers a wide range of internet-based and telecommunications services. The regional business also provides telephony and internet services to targeted consumers through its KC, Eclipse and Karoo brands.
The Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and employs over 2,500 people across the UK.
Kingston Communications, part of the KCOM Group PLC, is a regionally-focused communications provider. Through its KC and Eclipse Internet brands, it delivers a wide range of internet-based and telecommunications services to small and medium-sized businesses throughout the UK.
Kingston Communications also provides telephony and internet services to targeted consumers through its KC Talk, Karoo and Eclipse brands.
For more information about Kingston Communications go to http://www.kingstoncommunications.com
Cristina Whittington/Jenna Keighly
Nelson Bostock Communications
020 7229 4400
E: cristina.whittington@nelsonbostock.com or jenna.keighley@nelsonbostock.com
Vicki Blenkarn
Kingston Communications
01482 602831
E: victoria.blenkarn@kcom.com
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