What HDCE is not looking for

What we have been through

We lived through this story. We are not telling it to point fingers at anyone, but because it shows clearly what happens when a partnership stops working.

1. Recommendations are left pending. We propose the necessary patches, upgrades and adjustments. They are postponed, then set aside.
2. Alerts go unanswered. Our monitoring detects a risk. We notify the client by email, then by phone. No decision is made.
3. The outage happens. The next morning, the environment is down. Without control of the infrastructure or the necessary authorizations, we cannot step in in time.
4. We are held responsible. Despite the documented notices and alerts, the outage is blamed on HDCE.
5. A more serious incident follows. The same warnings go unheeded and a more serious problem hits the business. We do everything we can, but without the decisions or the access required.
6. The client decides to leave. We hand over all the keys, access and information they need going forward.
7. The transition leaves gaps. The new provider misses items during the handover. The client then comes back to us, but the former environment was shut down at the end of the service, as per the agreement.
8. Nobody comes out ahead. The relationship ends in disagreement, even though every step had been clearly communicated.

As you can understand, with our hands tied, there is nothing we can do.

When our recommendations go unaddressed, our alerts remain unanswered and we do not have control of the infrastructure, we simply cannot protect you.

We never want to go through a situation like that again. Because we put our heart and soul into what we do.

If this way of working doesn’t suit you, it is not a judgment. It simply means we would not be the right partner for you, and you deserve a provider that truly fits.

The clients we are looking for

We choose our clients the way our clients choose their provider: carefully, aiming for a lasting relationship built on trust and clear expectations on both sides. We do our best work with:

• Companies that want to delegate with confidence“Here’s my budget, here’s where I want to go, take this stress off my plate.” That’s what many clients tell us at the very first meeting. We take over and handle the rest.
• Development teams without an infrastructure teamYour developers build your product, but no one looks after the infrastructure that runs it. We become that team. And because we also know development, we speak the same language as your developers.
• Organizations that want predictable costsIn the public cloud, every service you turn on adds a line to the bill, and the bills pile up fast. We offer you a controlled environment, with costs you can plan for.
• Organizations committed to the sovereignty of their dataYour information and data stay in Canada, in our infrastructure, under your control.

The right level of service, defined together

Evening, day, night, morning: your infrastructure doesn’t keep office hours.

It matters to us, and it matters to you.

Every client has its own reality. Some are very comfortable with scheduled maintenance windows and coverage during business hours, for example from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., without high availability at night. Other clients we host operate across several time zones, with users everywhere: for them, it’s 24/7 with high availability. Together, we determine the level that matches your needs.

• Business hours

  Who it’s for

  Organizations whose activities are concentrated in a regular workday.

  Coverage

  During the agreed business hours, for example from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

  Maintenance

  Scheduled windows outside business hours.

  Availability

  Aligned with your business hours; nights are not covered with high availability.

• Extended

  Who it’s for

  Organizations whose activities extend beyond the workday: evenings, weekends, rotating shifts.

  Coverage

  An extended time window, defined according to your operations.

  Maintenance

  Windows scheduled when the impact is lowest.

  Availability

  Reinforced during your critical periods.

• 24/7 high availability

  Who it’s for

  Organizations active across several time zones, with users everywhere.

  Coverage

  Day and night, every day of the year.

  Maintenance

  Scheduled so as to preserve service continuity.

  Availability

  A high-availability architecture designed to minimize interruptions.

Whatever level you choose, everything is clear and confirmed in writing: what is included, what is not and what is billable. You know exactly what to expect, and so do we.

What we need to protect you properly

• Control of the infrastructureWe hold the health and stability of your environments to a high standard. To take responsibility for them, we need full management of them.
• Prompt responses to our alertsWhen we alert you, it’s because a real risk exists. A quick response and decision let us act before the problem turns into an outage.
• Clear decisions, recorded in writingWe document every choice with you. Choosing an option also means accepting what it does not include: if you go with plan A, plan B does not apply. Everyone knows where they stand.
• Recognition of expertiseDepending on your agreement, some interventions are billable. That is the value of specialized expertise. And a poorly directed infrastructure always costs more to fix than to build right.

Why we are so demanding

• Nearly 1,000 environments managedSeveral thousand servers and workstations, from the lightest environments to the most complex. That many situations lived through, and that many lessons learned.
• Migrations of entire data centresWe have migrated entire environments, up to complete data centres, leaving nothing to chance.
• Experts, not generalistsOur hourly rate is higher, but our teams move much faster. Where others find the work long and laborious, we deliver quickly: in the end, it costs you less.
• Nothing is overlookedToo often, a team takes over a file and lets whole parts of it slip. We cover everything and ask the right questions.

We know the impacts. We know where to take you, what needs to be done and, above all, what must not be done.