"We originally come from the classic infrastructure business, but have always worked very solution-oriented. CNS started early to monitor and manage its customers’ systems and networks and later took over firewall and endpoint security management. Today, the cloud and security are becoming more and more inseparable and it is increasingly important for customers to have ready-to-go solution packages that give them secure access to infrastructure and applications wherever they are physically located. For service providers like us, this means working together with customers to create strategically sensible and innovative solutions in data centre operations," explains Müller.

For its IaaS and SaaS services, CNS has been using the Wortmann AG (Terra Cloud) data centres for some time now and for good reason: "We select the data centres that best suit us in terms of security and scope of services – and that do not handcuff us contractually.“

Courage for real innovation

After CNS had already successfully dealt with the provision and maintenance of individual applications (SaaS) for some time, the number of requests for which not only a specific solution should be available via the cloud, but also in a package with standard applications such as Office, increased. However, the standard billing (concurrent-use model) and access (VPN) models on the market proved to be extremely complex and inefficient to use.

"Some in the market apparently have not yet understood that managed services should increase flexibility. They continue to adhere to their licensing models, even though they may have different names today. In addition, many solutions are not really designed for managed services," says Müller’s experience. For its customer, the software manufacturer temino, CNS was therefore looking for more innovative partners and more practicable processes.

With its product ISiMap, an integrated IT basic protection (ISMS) and data protection tool (DSMS), temino primarily addresses industrial companies and municipalities. Here, the solution facilitates the work of employees who are responsible for legally compliant information security and the protection of personal data. For example, through parameterizable views on structures and risks, automated workflows and escalation mechanisms for reporting and handling security incidents. By "drag and drop", users can create information networks with assets, applications, data and building blocks, create templates (so-called profiles) from them and make these available to other municipalities, access existing catalogues of specifications and much more.

"ISiMap helps me to recognize risks for information security more quickly and to coordinate a continuous, sustainable improvement process," says Heino Reinartz, Information Security Officer (ISO) of the StädteRegion Aachen. Real improvements have been made, for example, in the coordination and monitoring of security measures: The integrated workflow can trigger control tasks automatically and interlocked – and thus provides considerable relief for the ISO and DPO (Data Protection Officer) in the administration.

Platform for digital workspaces and SaaS services of almost all kinds

A challenge for the delivery of the ISiMap from temino was the fact that there are many assets which are only accessed by very few users (1 to a maximum of 5) of the municipal customers. Their individual connection would have become too costly. "So we had something in mind like streaming in the data centre and browser-based access and so we started looking for a suitable platform.

With oneclick, everything fit – the simplicity of the subscription, the ease of use, the GDPR conformity and the billing form of a monthly flat rate per user," recalls Müller. The servicing by CNS also promised to be relatively simple: Roll out, patching, update, check – because oneclick provides the individually equipped desktops for the employees of the municipalities.

The independence from end devices that oneclick offers with its platform was for teminos business with municipalities, state offices and other public institutions "like a liberation strike", reports Jürgen Berndt, co-founder of temino and managing director of Berndt & Brungs Software GmbH in Troisdorf. The solution is now enjoying increasing popularity, especially as it allows profiles to be created and used cooperatively for a wide range of public sector information and data protection tasks (e.g. in EU elections, but also for training companies, etc.).

After the successful installation and coordination, the number of temino customers invoiced by CNS is growing continuously, a fact which Frank Müller is pleased about and which he attributes not least to the commitment of the oneclick employees. "Our technicians are enthusiastic about the quality of the cooperation. They find that oneclick’s support is a beneficial exception in the manufacturer landscape," says the CNS managing director.

Müller himself is so impressed with the Workspace Provisioning and Streaming Platform that he will integrate it into a new offering model for his customers: Managed Desktop with oneclick + Managed Infrastructure + optional Service Desk.

As head of the Cloud focus group in the ALSO Network, a systems integrator cooperation active throughout Germany, Müller announced at the last conference that he would evaluate promising platforms for managed services. In the meantime, he has identified "two highly suitable solutions for MSP models", which he will now bring closer to his colleagues in the network. One of them is oneclick™.