GleSYS: Setting a New Standard for IT Done Right

For Andreas Bergman, head of business development at GleSYS, it all comes down to enabling customers to stay online in a high-performance environment that always delivers.

“People and enterprises use our services to stay online, whether it’s to use our email service or our cloud data center services,” says Bergman. “Regardless, our typical customer relies on our services for their daily operations. The end game is to always be online.”

We recently connected with Bergman to learn more about the privately owned IT services and solutions company based in Sweden. Serving more than 4,000 enterprises around the world, GleSYS offers an extensive portfolio that includes IaaS, the GleSYS Cloud – a VMware Cloud Verified service – and a wide range of network solutions. The firm is also known for its advanced data centers, including facilities that recycle the heat they generate.

“Our customers typically want to spend less time managing their infrastructure operations and more time providing additional services to their customers,” says Bergman. “We help by allowing them to offload their infrastructure and data center operations to us while still maintaining absolute quality and security in their environment. And we do all of this in a very environmentally friendly way that results in a reduced carbon footprint.”

Notably, GleSYS is certified in quality, information security, and environmental management.  The company has certifications in ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and ISO 14001 respectively.

“Many of our cloud customers already have invested in VMware technology and knowledge,” Bergman adds. “Typically they want to either expand their operations or simply shift their infrastructure from a CAPEX to an OPEX cost model without having to make any big investments in hardware or infrastructure, and without requiring their existing staff to take part in additional training or take on extra work. Our customers want to know what their infrastructure costs will be in advance, and they want to focus on innovation rather than keeping the lights on. We help by empowering our customers to leave keeping the lights on to us.”

Bergman points out that GleSYS offers a number of VMware Cloud Verified Services.

“With VMware being the most common data center virtualization provider among our customers it makes a lot of sense for us to be part of that same ecosystem, and in that way ensure that we can support their changing needs and be a good partner on their cloud adoption journey,” he says. “By being VMware Cloud Verified we validate that our solutions share VMware’s proven and trusted architecture and ensure that our customers are always online and operational.”

While the company’s success throughout the Nordic region more than validates GleSYS’ success providing ultra-reliable, high-performance VMware Cloud Verified solutions – it has customers in practically every industry – one area of growth is particularly telling. Bergman notes that system integrators and IT outsourcing companies are increasingly looking to the company’s cloud services as a replacement for their physical infrastructure.

“We’re seeing more of these companies moving their workloads to our platforms,” he says. “In that way they have less hardware to focus on and can use that time and energy to better support their customers instead of having to worry about hard drives breaking down, the network becoming saturated, or their storage being too slow. With us, they always have a high-performance platform at their fingertips without any hassle.”

Benefiting the Environment with Innovative Data Centers:

In addition to is to its growing portfolio of cloud services, GleSYS is also widely known for its data centers, of which the company owns five.  These include three in Sweden – two in Falkenberg and one in Stockholm – as well as two data centers in Oulu, Finland.

Two of the company’s data centers in Sweden offer a glimpse into how technology companies can directly and significantly impact the environment for the better.  Both facilities, including one in Falkenberg and one in Stockholm, utilize electricity generated from sustainable sources rather than fossil fuels. Most impressively, these state-of-the-art facilities also recycle the heat they generate into the local municipality’s heating system. In Falkenberg, it’s hoped that the data center ultimately will provide 25% of the city’s heat – no small feat in a country like Sweden where temperatures typically are 40° F or lower for four months each year.

“GleSYS has a very strong culture of doing the right thing, doing things that matter, and doing them in a sustainable way,” adds Bergman. “There are a number of examples of data centers doing things around renewable energy – everything from heating the building to drying organic fuel for combustion heating systems. Every approach differs in efficiency and in how much of a difference it makes. We wanted to do it properly and make sure we actually make a difference by putting the excess heat into the district heating systems. We know the heat goes to the right place and in an efficient manner that is sustainable environmentally and financially. We will continue to do this for years to come and are committed to being carbon positive by 2030.”

Learn more about GleSYS and its partnership with VMware here.