Comarch is a major Polish IT services provider with significant global reach. It predominantly specialises in business facilitation software and systems, such as CRM, Sales Support and ERP, but also has a vast network of owned and leased data centre space from which it offers standard colocation and outsourcing services.
Comarchs data centre outsourcing services covers PaaS, Saas and IaaS so clients can choose to bring their own hardware, source the full system via Comarch or virtualise through IaaS. All of Comarchs service options come with disaster recovery services and their huge network of data centre space allows for secure geo-redundancy.
What sets Comarch apart is its fully managed service for IBM i Power Systems, which can be hosted physically in Comarchs data centre or as a fully virtualised I Series in the cloud on Comarch hardware. Clients with the on-premises infrastructure can even outsource the managed service part whilst hosting the necessary hardware on business premises.
Location
Comarch is headquartered in Krakow, Poland and has offices around the globe in Europe, Asia, Latin America, The USA and the Middle East. It owns four data centres in total, two of which are in Poland in Krakow and Warsaw. The remaining data centres are in Dresden in Germany and very soon, Lille in France.
Aside from its owned data centres, Comarch rents colocation space in data centres around the world. Those rented spots are in Germany, Canada, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Russia, the USA and Singapore. The two additional German locations in Frankfurt are part of an e-shelter wholesale data centre campus and Comarch rents its own buildings on the site.
The Lille data centre is expected to open sometime in 2016 and will be located within an office complex. The 12 million Dresden data centre was opened in 2013 and boasts around 4800 m² floor space, 1200 m² of which is divided into two standalone data halls.
All of Comarchs data centres are built or modernised to extremely high standards. The calibre of its clients means that Comarch has the best available infrastructure and security and where it leases space, it chooses renowned and secure providers, such as Equinix and e-shelter.
Energy
Comarch actively embarks upon a range of energy saving measures and commitments, although doesnt announce them with fanfare on its publicity materials. In 2014 Comarch signed the Polish Declaration of Sustainable Business Development through which it fully commits to ten promises to improve sustainability and environment through its business activities. It also became a member of the Polish Chamber of Commerces programme for the Protection of the Environment.
Comarch has been an avid recycler of redundant electronic equipment for many years and also collects waste paper for recycling too. Other energy saving measures includes using renewable energy in its data centres through the Tauron Eko Biznes programme and the replacement of Diesel company cars with Euro 5 compliant models.
Funding/business model
Comarch was founded in 1993 and was listed in the Krakow stock exchange by 1999. It is now a public company but the founding Filipiak family still retain 43% of the shares. Comarch Capital Group is composed of a number of companies that offer different specialisations, with Comarch SA being the data centre services branch.
Comarch posted revenues of 250 million in 2014, up from 72 million in just ten years. The company has experienced significant growth, even during the economic downturn, and much of its growth has been self-funded. Almost half of Comarchs sales arise from exporting its services, so global expansion is has more than paid off and Comarch continues to invest in both organic and buy-and-build expansion in Poland, Germany, France and abroad.
Customers and partners
Comarchs client list covers the entire spectrum of business sizes and it has as many SMEs on its books as corporations. It operates in most industries, with the largest number of clients in the Media and telecommunications industries, as well as the German, Austrian, Swiss and Polish SME sectors.
Amongst its vast clientele there are lots of globally recognisable blue chips, including Vodafone, ING Bank, Thomas Cook, Heathrow Airport, Coca Cola (Poland), BP, T-Mobile, Tesco, Red Bull and Heineken.
A global software company with added colocation
Comarch is a business software solutions provider and not a standard colocation company. It does offer colocation services, however, and these are ideally commissioned to host Comarchs own solutions, such as its ERP or loyalty card software.
Standalone data centre services are available from Comarch and are ideal for businesses of any size, especially small to mid-size businesses that can benefit from an existing infrastructure beyond normal financial reach.