LONDON, October 14 /PRNewswire/ --

- Digital Agency Rufus Leonard Deploys NTT Europe Online's Hosted Virtualization Solution - Cutting Website Development Time in Half and Dramatically Improving its Service Offering

Rufus Leonard (http://www.rufusleonard.com/), a leading digital marketing agency, is using NTT Europe Online's (http://www.ntteuropeonline.com/) managed virtualization service to dramatically reduce the cost and time associated with developing, testing and launching its clients' websites, giving it clear competitive advantage and greater agility.

Traditionally, Rufus Leonard's clients' websites were based on multi-server environments including development, testing and production, meaning it needed to replicate each environment onto its own internal development servers and then migrate the data onto servers hosted by NTT Europe Online. This process was costly and time consuming and often limited the number of projects that Rufus Leonard could undertake at any one time, creating a clear need for a more flexible and agile hosting infrastructure.

"We have tight deadlines and our clients rightly expect things to be done quickly. A core part of what we offer is the speed at which we can deliver our services. Because our development and production environments are now virtually hosted with NTT Europe Online, the migration path is much quicker than before, allowing us to push sites live very efficiently," said Peter Barker, Head of Development for Rufus Leonard.

Using virtualization technology, Rufus Leonard can now run multiple server instances on one big computer, allowing them to build environments and take them down within hours. "It's almost like a software version of a server. Now, almost no matter what opportunities or challenges come our way, we can very rapidly build and deploy the right type of server and get a fast, reliable platform running. Virtualisation has literally revolutionised our service offering."

Damian Skendrovic, Regional Director of NTT Europe Online said: "Many of our customers are looking at how virtualization can increase the efficiency of their server environments and drive down the costs of hardware and software. Rufus Leonard is a prime example of how virtualization can offer huge benefits when applied to a specific business challenge."

"The cost of website downtime is well documented," adds Skendrovic. "Any business that relies on revenue generated through its web site simply can't afford to let its customers down with denial of service notifications. Businesses put their trust in Rufus Leonard to develop and maintain highly available and robust websites that can be updated, refreshed or even overhauled without disruption to the business. Virtualization technology is helping them deliver on this trust."

NTT Europe Online provides a fully managed virtualization solution, based on VMware technology, on top of dedicated hardware environments. NTT Europe Online's Managed Virtualization Service allows companies to consolidate and optimise hardware resources and control infrastructure costs, whilst increasing solution flexibility and availability levels.

Virtualization essentially lets one server do the job of multiple servers, by sharing the resources of a single server across multiple environments. Virtual servers let companies host multiple operating systems and multiple applications locally and in remote locations, freeing businesses from physical and geographical limitations. In addition to energy savings and lower capital expenses due to more efficient use of your hardware resources, companies get high availability of resources, increased security, and improved disaster recovery processes as a result of a virtual infrastructure. http://www.ntteuropeonline.com/virtualization-vmware.aspx

About NTT Europe Online

NTT Europe Online provides managed hosting, security and application management services to businesses globally. These services provide the reliability, availability, security and scalability needed to underpin business success online.

NTT Europe Online is certified to ISO27001 for Information Security Management and, as part of NTT Communications, has the global reach and scale to support businesses of all sizes. NTT Communications is the global data and IP services arm of the Fortune Global 500 telecom leader, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation (NTT). For further information visit http://www.ntteuropeonline.com

About Rufus Leonard

As well as being one of the UK's leading digital agencies, Rufus Leonard is also one of the country's top branding agencies. With over 15 years of experience working with the likes of Lloyds TSB, O2, BT, The Royal Mail and Churchill, it offers a range of specialist skills in a single agency setting.

For further information visit http://www.rufusleonard.com

For further details, please contact: Dan Alder / Joseph Thomas / Josh Turner, Brands2Life, Tel: +44(0)207-592-1200, ntteo@brands2life.com