Apr, 2002 : Genuity Achieves Microsoft/Compaq Certification

📅 April 17, 2002 - Managed hosting provider Genuity Inc. (genuity.com) announced on Tuesday that it has become the first company to receive the new joint certification from technology providers Microsoft and Compaq. The company received the Microsoft global Gold Application Infrastructure Provider/Compaq SP Signature designation for its operations in support of its Black Rocket Hosting platform.
The Microsoft Gold AIP/Compaq SP Signature certification is based, in part, on the application infrastructure certification announced last week by Microsoft. Conducted by Compaq's professional services organization, in conjunction with Microsoft, the certification involved a rigorous set of interviews with both policy makers and those responsible for executing it, as well as on-site inspections.
The certification, says Genuity vice president of product strategy, Rob McKinney, "is really designed to integrate the hardware certification that Compaq was doing and also the best practices around managing Microsoft OS and applications that reside on top of the hardware. What made it unique is that because it was a dual certification between the two, it really did look at how tightly is the application and OS layer tied to the hardware from a management and delivery perspective. It was designed specifically around a service provider environment, and it was specifically looking at how the service provider optimizes the combined platform of the OS and software riding on the hardware to really manage customer needs.?
The first step in achieving the certification, says McKinney, is providing documented lists outlining the company's for operational procedures, including models for customer engagement, marketing, support, provisioning and customer change. Compaq's professional services team then conducts weeks of on-site interviews with everybody involved in the delivery of those services, ensuring that procedure is actually followed. Finally, they visit data centers and conduct tests with staff responsible for operating the network and the individual customer implementations.
?It's a grueling certification,? says McKinney, ?We've been through quite a number of them, and this was by far the hardest to get through.?
A major component of the certification was the testing the company's ability to provide high quality Web hosting to customers as they deploy Microsoft .NET Web services. McKinney says that recently, Genuity has seen a real interest from its customers in migrating their operations to .NET. Last week, he says, Genuity launched an official upgrade campaign, designed to help customers migrate their NT environments to Windows 2000, the basis for .NET.
Over the next several months, Genuity says it will be launching a number of services based on the .NET Framework, including hosted offerings based on Microsoft Solution for Supplier Enablement, Microsoft Solution for Internet Business and the Microsoft Solution for HIPAA.
According to McKinney, the value of the certification to Genuity lies largely in assuring prospective customers of the reliability of the company's services. ?If you're a prospective customer, what you're going to be looking for is the scalability and reliability of the provider,? he says. ?Especially if you're trusting your business on it. No longer are people looking to deploy just a web site. They're looking to integrate that external interface into their ongoing business operations, so they're looking much more carefully at best practices and how people address the provisioning and ongoing support."
And in helping to launch the new certification, says McKinney, Genuity was able to provide some insight that Microsoft and Compaq had not yet considered. ?As they went through the process,? he says, ?they identified a number of things that we do as general practice that they were going to go back and add to the certification.?
In addition to the Microsoft global Gold AIP/Compaq SP Signature designation, Genuity has achieved a number of other third-part certifications, including ISO 9001:200 and SA70 Type II and recognition as an industry leader in META Group's METAspectrum for managed Web hosting.