Bruchsal, 30.3.2011 --- APLIGO, the Bruchsal based appliance specialist, has secured the largest contract in their history to deliver a complete supply chain solution to Astaro, the Karlsruhe based Internet Security vendor.

APLIGO has been offering RMA handling and refurbishment services to Astaro for several months, and with the award of the new contract, APLIGO is now also responsible for the complete sales inventory covering hardware sourcing, integration, assembly, quality control, warehousing and international logistics over the entire EMEA region. "We are delighted to have such a well-known manufacturer as Astaro convinced as to the efficiency of our entire range of services." said Marc Emminger, managing director of APLIGO.

APLIGO has more than 2000 square meters which boasts modern production facilities, state-of-the-art quality control systems and an extensive warehouse. "The quality of our appliances and the reliability of logistics and service for our customers are critical for us," said Jan Hichert, CEO of Astaro GmbH & Co. KG. "We are convinced that APLIGO is the ideal partner to maintain our quality standards and provide the flexibility we require.

We found the perfect building in the former Siemens Technopark (now TRIWO Techno Park). This location is ideally suited to our increased space requirements and provides plenty of room for further growth.    
 
We now have more than 2100 square meters including a 1000 square meter high-bay warehouse, on 125 square meters five Kardex vertical lifts, about 600 square meters of production area and a spacious office area.
 
We also have two truck bays with hydraulic lifts, which we’ll need to handle our rapid increase in stock turnover.

The location is excellent. The junction to the A5 motorway is just 5 minutes away and both the passenger and freight railway stations are on the doorstep.
With this strategic move to much a larger facility, Apligo are now well equipped for the growth we expect in the coming years.

As of this month, APLIGO GmbH/Germany, full-service provider of hardware-appliances and related services, has added a new range of 1U and 2U storage rack servers to its portfolio. All the models, manufactured by QSSC of Asia, are characterized by their excellent workmanship, high reliability and performance, ease-of-administration and a very attractive price/performance ratio.

Unlike systems from other vendors, where advanced options are either not available at all or only at an additional charge, the systems include numerous advanced features like KVM-over-IP and IPMI.  A majority of the server systems are equipped with an onboard CF-card adapter which also allows their use as an appliance solution. The 1U and 2U rack mount systems offer capacity for 2 up to 12 hotswap-capable SATA/SAS harddisks and a support of CPUs ranging from single Core2Duo up to dual XEON CPUs of the E5000 series.

For the introduction, APLIGO offers some selected barebone (no CPU, HDD, RAM) systems at a special price. More detailed information about the technical specs, the pricing and the introductory offer are available at APLIGO’s website www.apligo.com/qssc-promo. 

All systems are also available as fully configured servers which APLIGO customizes on demand and which are assembled on a build-to-order base.

Linux more and more becomes an alternative for local municipalities and town councils in their planning of an efficient IT-infrastructure. This is the main reason why Novell GmbH, Hewlett-Packard GmbH and numerous independent software vendors have founded the initiative "Linux Kommunale" which, for the first time, creates a continuous portfolio of Linux-based solutions targeting the public administration and the offices of local authorities.

Main purpose of the initiative is, in cooperation with selected software developers, the porting of solutions for the office communication and special purpose applications (e.g. council registration, administration of public budgets and treasury, social functions) to, as well as the development of new applications for the cost-effective open source platform Linux. The Linux-Initiative is supported and sponsored by independent institutions like the MFG Baden-Württemberg and the Association of Cities and Towns of Rhineland-Palatinate.

By joining the initiative, APLIGO GmbH extends and complements the range of products - currently consisting of the server- and client-operating system, the backup tools and the office components from Novell GmbH and the servers, desktop-PCs, notebooks, thin-clients and the printing solutions from Hewlett-Packard - by so-called hardware appliances and all related technical and logistical services.

APLIGO GmbH, located in Karlsruhe/Germany, has been appointed the logistical hub and service-center for SmoothWall's hardware appliances in Europe. As part of its services, APLIGO handles the warehousing, assembly, logistics and technical services (warranties, RMA-management, NBD pre-exchange etc.) for the delivery of hardware to SmoothWall's customers and SmoothWall's sales channel in Europe.

"Our primary focus is software development, sales, and the related services required by our channel partners and our customers. When it comes to hardware, additional services, systems and processes are necessary; using APLIGOs as a service partner for this area allows us to meet customer expectations from day one without the investment in time, money and resources usually required." says George Lungley, Managing Director of SmoothWall.

"Our task is to ease our customers life and to take away the headaches when dealing with appliance (hardware) related services. Our customers appreciate that they do not have to re-invent the wheel and invest money in warehouse space, for developing the internal systems and processes and tying up internal resources. We are very proud to win SmoothWall as our customer for these services" says Marc Emminger, one of the Managing Directors of APLIGO GmbH.