GlassHouse Technologies, a global provider of independent data centre consulting and managed services, has announced that it has been selected to lead the IT infrastructure upgrade at Olswang LLP, one of Europe's leading law firms. Under terms of the deal, Olswang will completely outsource its IT department to GlassHouse, tasking them to manage the infrastructure, automate manual processes, improve efficiencies and streamline IT operations. These managed services support and IT enhancements are critical for Olswang as it looks to sharpen its edge in the highly competitive legal industry and continue to expand operations globally.

The project, which kicks off in July, is a continuation of work by Systems Group Integration, acquired by GlassHouse in September 2009, and is a combination of GlassHouse’s managed services and consulting services. GlassHouse will help run the Olswang environment more efficiently, outline best practices for operations and provide overall support for the infrastructure. The initial project will focus on three distinct initiatives – workspace management, exchange migrations and archiving.

Key to the agreement was GlassHouse’s global reach and Olswang’s ability to outsource its IT operations. The integration of the GlassHouse team with the Olswang IT staff allows for a deep sharing of knowledge on modern IT infrastructure implementations while also providing the Olswang IT staff with benefits like added IT resources to complete projects and the ability to reallocate staff to focus on other mission-critical initiatives.

“Our rapid growth and drive to expand globally necessitated a more strategic approach to better manage our existing and newly acquired operations,” said Clive Knott, IT director at Olswang LLP. “With GlassHouse’s expert team, we are outsourcing our IT operations to a knowledgeable third-party to automate processes, reduce costs and improve efficiency across our organisation. Integrating into GlassHouse’s IT team has given us the flexibility to accomplish our IT goals while also providing benefits and the capability to reallocate staff to broaden their expertise on strategic IT initiatives.”