Dear Customers,

Following our last communication on the subject, at BMIT Technologies plc, we continue to monitor the situation and we are continuously taking actions in line with our business continuity plans, company health and safety policy and any recommendations issued by the Malta Public Health authorities.

In view of the easement of restrictions related to COVID-19 in Malta, and in line with recommendations from the Malta Public Health authorities, BMIT Technologies plc is now officially removing all restrictions introduced in relation to COVID-19.

We greatly appreciate your understanding and cooperation throughout this current situation. Please visit our COVID-19 page for the latest information.

On October 4, 2021, the social media giant Facebook, along with its services Instagram and WhatsApp, experienced a major outage that lasted several hours, sending both social media enthusiasts and, more importantly, businesses relying on social media into a state of panic. “Was it a malicious hacker attack? Is Facebook down for good?”

The truth turned out to be much less dramatic than the speculations. These few precious hours, which cost thousands of businesses millions of dollars, were lost because of a minor human error and the fragility of the Internet as a whole. Because, despite the fact we see it as powerful and unbreakable, the Internet is truly very, very delicate.

To understand what happened, we would like to simplify a bit and try to compare the Internet to something that you might find much easier to understand – the Maltese road system.

The Internet of Malta

The Internet could be compared to Malta’s towns. Every Internet service provider and every major enterprise, such as Facebook, is like a separate town. They have their own internal network of roads that they know well and they have bypasses and smaller roads that connect them to their neighbours. Luckily, we all have Google Maps, or even physical maps and our own human memory, that help us navigate and for example, easily find the best way to get from L-Imtarfa to Marsaxlokk.

However, imagine that there is no Google Maps and you can’t even get a physical map at a shop. There are no road signs that show directions. And imagine that for every trip, every driver starts fresh and remembers nothing about their previous routes. How would such drivers be able to find their way? If they tried doing it by pure chance, they would be stuck forever in endless loops and never get to their destination.

To make connections between towns and villages possible, imagine that every local council communicated with their direct neighbours daily (or even more often) and told them of any new roads built, any construction on existing roads, basically showing them the best ways to get through the town. Each road in the town would have a certain value assigned to it, which would represent how wide the road is, what is the quality of the tarmac, and how jammed it is in the rush hour. And all this information would be freely available at any time to any driver directly from the originating local council.

With such a system, someone making their way from L-Imtarfa to Marsaxlokk would go to the Mtarfa local council and pick up the current information about the best route to Marsaxlokk. This route would be based on information received from Rabat, which in turn Rabat received from Iż-Żebbuġ and other direct connections, etc.

The Village That Disappeared

Now, imagine if the Marsaxlokk local council made a mistake and on October 4, 2021, during a routine update of the routes, they sent out information to their neighbours that due to road construction, to get to Marsaxlokk, you have to turn around at the Triq Iż-Żejtun roundabout, and that the best route is through Triq Iż-Żejtun (not via Qajjenza). This would effectively send every single car going to Marsaxlokk from Żejtun back on its way to Żejtun in an endless loop.

This wrong information would then be propagated from Żejtun to Żabbar, from Żabbar to Raħal Ġdid, making its way almost instantaneously through all of Malta. And from this moment on, Marsaxlokk would effectively disappear. Cars coming from Marsaxlokk to other towns would of course find their way out (cause other towns made no mistakes in their routing) but no incoming traffic would be possible because every car would be directed to Triq Iż-Żejtun and then turned around at the roundabout.

This would, of course, be noticed immediately by the Marsaxlokk local council. However, imagine that John, the person who had the key to the Marsaxlokk local council, went out to eat dinner in Birgu and left Marsaxlokk with the key. And nobody else in Marsaxlokk would have the key to the local council building. John would be unable to return to Marsaxlokk to correct his mistake until some kind of an emergency “hack” was made – either someone would pick the lock or John would walk back to Marsaxlokk instead of driving a car.

Small Error, Big Price

This is exactly what, supposedly, happened to Facebook on October 4, 2021. During a routine update of BGP information (Border Gateway Protocol), which was then sent to all the neighbours of the Facebook internal network, someone made a mistake in the routing tables. As a result, no packets were able to reach the Facebook network from the outside. And the people with physical access to the network did not have the access rights to send a corrected update – the mistake effectively shut out those who would be able to correct it.

This small error is not that uncommon, situations like this have happened before and they keep reminding us that the Internet is, in reality, very fragile. One wrong number and you’re cut off. What we are hoping is that this helps you appreciate all the hard work that Internet service providers and enterprise network administrators are doing every day, under a lot of pressure, to make sure that you can maintain your e-business or spend leisure time online.

The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry has signed a Bronze Collaboration Agreement with BMIT Technologies plc. The agreement will pair BMIT Technologies with The Malta Chamber’s Digital Transformation Committee which will provide awareness to the business community in areas related to data economy, cyber security and digital skills amongst others.

“As a Chamber of Commerce, we fully promote the need for smart investment in digitalisation, innovation and research in support of the business community at large. Through this signing, The Malta Chamber is once again strengthening its resources by collaborating with national business champions such as BMIT Technologies to be more effective to the needs of the country more than ever before. We are eager to support our membership with the inevitable ‘techceleration’ in a robust and resilient manner” noted The Chamber President, Perit David Xuereb.

Ing. Christian Sammut, BMIT Technologies CEO, said “We are excited to be partnering with The Malta Chamber and support the digital transformation initiative being launched. . We look forward to contribute our expertise and resources through streering the Digital Transformation committee and play a leading rolein rendering Malta a better place to do business and in so doing generating better lives for its people. Our vision of harnessing technology to power businesses fits perfectly in this initiative”.

Through this signing, BMIT Technologies plc will be supporting the Digital Transformation Committee to raise awareness among companies of disruptive technologies. Moreover, this collaboration will allow our Digital Transformation committee to formulate policy positions for a sustainable economic future that is transforming our economy in a rapid manner.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Perit David Xuereb and Ms Marisa Xuereb as President and Deputy President of The Malta Chamber, respectively, and Ing. Christian Sammut, CEO at BMIT Technologies plc.

11^th March 2021 - While 2020 will go down as one of the most challenging years in recent memory, it has nonetheless proved to be another successful year for BMIT Technologies plc, the premier provider of secure and reliable technology solutions, as it reported strong results for the year.

These results are reflected in a company announcement that its board of directors is recommending annual dividends of €5.95 million for the financial year ending 2020, or almost €0.03 per share (€0.02922), 22% higher than the projected net dividend of €0.024 per share at the time of Initial Public Offering.

Earlier this week, BMIT Technologies also published its 2020 financial results, showing a year-on-year increase of 6.9% in revenues to €24 million, with the main drivers for this growth being a greater demand for cloud and managed connectivity services.  EBITDA rose by 5% to €10.5 million, whilst operating profit surged by over 8% to €7.9 million.

“This year’s dividend to shareholders is our best one since our initial public offering in 2019, and exceeds the targets we set in our IPO”, said Nikhil Patil, Chairman of BMIT Technologies plc. “The Group’s positive performance ties in with the elevated levels of investment we are making in our strategic growth priorities and reflecting our confidence in our ability to create long-term value for our shareholders,” Mr Patil said.

“Our financial performance reflects the efforts we are making across our main service pillars, including our datacentre and cloud services. This will allow us to strengthen our offering further in the coming years as we continue to pursue a well-managed investment programme to help achieve sustainable business growth and long-term return to our shareholders,” added Ing Christian Sammut, BMIT Technologies’ CEO.

The final dividend for the year ended 31st December 2020 will be paid on the 28^th May 2021 to all shareholders who are on the shareholders’ register of Monday 26^th April 2021. The Annual General Meeting will be held remotely on Wednesday 26^th May 2021.

Our purpose as BMIT Technologies is to power businesses to achieve their desired outcomes through harnessing technology. BMIT Technologies has a clear objective to deliver technological solutions in a straightforward manner, through a team of passionate people who understand technology yet are able to deliver it in a simplified way.  We are aware that every client we work with requires different solutions. So, at BMIT Technologies, we tackle each need with our expertise in technology, business strategy and innovation, by developing intelligent, secure infrastructure solutions and identifying opportunities to enhance business potential through the application of innovative technologies.

If you’re planning to expand your IT infrastructure to the cloud, Microsoft’s products will have you covered, with Azure undoubtedly being a market leader in the world of cloud platforms. Well, once you’ve made up your mind, what’s stopping you from purchasing the service directly from Microsoft? Why introduce an intermediary? Here’s the answer.

Being a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have invested a lot in our team to gain an intimate understanding of the ins and outs of Azure. From initial planning to the actual integration of Azure into your infrastructure, our team of experts will be there along the way to help you. Thanks to our technical expertise and experience in working with large businesses, we follow best practices when working with Azure. You’ll also get the full suite of services at a better rate – but that’s just the cherry on top.

In order to utilize the cloud to its full potential, a reliable network is required. BMIT can help you make the leap to Azure with MultiCloud Connect. At its backbone is our high-speed international network - the only one of its kind in Malta. It allows us to bridge the gap between Azure and your IT infrastructure in a stable manner.

We also understand the importance of compliance requirements. Some data may be too sensitive to be hosted on the public cloud, whereas some businesses may be required to keep a copy of their data locally for certain certifications. Well, there’s a solution – Azure Stack by BMIT, which allows you to get access to an instance of Azure hosted locally at our data centres. Through Azure Stack you can work with the Azure ecosystem from Malta, getting the best of both worlds – no compliance issues as well as reduced latency.

Azure is a powerful platform, offering computing power scalable with the click of a mouse, databases of all kinds fit for your needs and more. The options are highly available, secure, and cost-effective. Moreover, with BMIT you can also rely on our Azure managed services – an additional layer of support which allows you to focus on what’s most important while leaving the rest to us.

If you have any further questions about how your business can benefit from cloud solutions and how companies are using Azure and Azure Stack, feel free to contact us. For a full list of Azure services, visit our product page.

As technology moves forward and the world grows more connected, there is a growing interest in businesses to move their operations to the cloud. Hybrid cloud, featuring a combination of public and private architectures, blends the best of both worlds, making it an attractive option.

With a hybrid solution provided by BMIT, you’ll almost never have to worry about downtime – we guarantee operations at the highest level. Flexibility in data access is another advantage, allowing you to share necessary data in a form available to everyone on all devices, while your more secure data is kept on a private server in our data center.

However, with the increase in popularity, there is a similar increase in concerns. Let’s figure out why you shouldn’t be worried.

Costs

It may seem at first that using a cloud is expensive, but this is where the cloud’s scalability really shines. Instead of stocking up on power for future uses, you can choose the exact amount that fits your current requirements. Upgrading is always an option, but you won’t be paying extra until you need it.

You should also keep in mind that having a server on your own premises isn’t exactly cheap either - expenses don’t end at the purchase. Costs for cooling and power purposes can rack up to 100 euros or more per month just for one server, without maintenance and support taken into account. However, with private servers kept at BMIT, we can optimize the management, meaning fewer expenses for you.

Security

Keeping your data safe is crucial, and you can sleep soundly with the largest cloud providers out there. The data itself is encrypted according to the latest standards, and the servers are heavily guarded. Businesses all around the globe trust companies like Amazon and Microsoft, so you can be sure your data is in the right hands.

New Network Design

Expanding your IT capabilities to the cloud may seem like a daunting task. Both the private and public sectors have to be managed, different types of data need different security requirements, as well as other factors. But this is where we come in and make the transition easy, so you can focus on what’s important – your business.

Of course, a change in your IT infrastructure isn’t a decision one makes out the blue. If you still feel like hybrid isn’t the way for your company to go, or you have any further questions, we’re more than happy to help you out. You can contact us or read more about our cloud services here.

This article was featured on the EGR B2B Winners Report 2019. You can view the printed article here.

As the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and this fits perfectly with the realities of online gaming operators. The constant focus on launching innovations to end-users or deploying solutions and platforms to B2B clients requires both breadth and depth in terms of skillset and resources but also the ability to ensure that everything performs to a tee, all the time.

This is where service providers such as BMIT Technologies play a critical role. Winners of the 2019 IT Service Provider EGR award, the recently publicly listed company [MSE: BMIT], has further extended its services portfolio as it continues to serve its wide base of online gaming customers, ranging from innovative start-ups and small operators, to mid-size B2B and B2C operators to some of the largest gaming operators worldwide.

Originally known as a datacentre provider, BMIT Technologies has actually continued to invest in this area, with the announcements of the opening of yet another datacentre in Malta – a €10+ million investment in a purposely-built facility, designed to be Tier 3 certified once inaugurated in 2020. This investment complements the company’s other two datacentres in Malta, and its points of presence in Italy and Germany. As with all its facilities, the new datacentre will also be interlinked to BMIT’s high speed international private network, which provides one-of-a-kind speeds and security features for all BMIT Technologies customers. 

Customers’ demands for cloud solutions and hybrid cloud set-ups is on a continuous rise, and in this context BMIT Technologies has adopted a multi-pronged approach to ensure that customer requirements are satisfied. Over these last years the company has deployed a number of public cloud services, related to computing, storage, productivity and hosting, as well as a number of managed private and hybrid cloud services. These allow customers to tap into BMIT’s pool of technical experts and platforms, and define the optimal infrastructure requirements, which generally ensure a pay-as-you-go, scalable solution, which grows as business grows. Topping these offerings are a range of managed IT services, which allow customers to fully or partially delegate the management of their infrastructure to BMIT Technologies, and therefore further optimise their investments and resources.

In the context of increasing hybrid cloud requirements, as well as the deployment of services over global cloud platforms, BMIT has also announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft, which would allow it to deploy a range of managed services over Microsoft’s Azure platform globally. Additionally, the company will also be enabling hybrid cloud capabilities on Azure through Azure Stack, starting from Q4 2019, as it addresses regulatory and compliance requirements of customers wishing to deploy services on the cloud.

Security requirements and compliance concerns have always been top-of-mind topics for CEOs, CTOs and CSOs across organisations, and as infrastructures becomes increasingly complex, across platforms and sometimes across jurisdictions, security and compliance matters can become nightmare subjects unless handled appropriately. BMIT Technologies’ comprehensive security portfolio covers services and solutions such as managed firewalls, backups and disaster recovery solutions, unified threat management, remote access solutions and more recently, productivity-related security options.

Gone are the days when productivity products are seen as distinct from the rest of the company’s core IT systems. With employees working from different locations and requiring continuous access to company resources, CTOs are increasingly looking at solutions which allow for flexibility and ease of access without compromising the security of the organisational data. Microsoft Office 365 is most likely the most obvious choice for these requirements, as it provides a pay-per-use truly complete suite of solutions, with different plans: from the popular Word, Excel and PowerPoint to increasingly useful tools such as Teams, combined with SharePoint, which allows for easy collaboration, document share and communication all in one software.

All services are constantly being updated with new features – with the beautiful addition for technical teams that they need not worry about deploying and managing updates themselves. BMIT Technologies have handled some of Malta’s largest Office 365 implementations, with responsibility to deploy, migrate and power-up thousands of users across different Office 365 plans. Microsoft’s step-up from Office 365 is Microsoft 365, which bundles Office 365, Windows 10 and mobility security features together, and all for a pay-per-use monthly fee.  BMIT have added Microsoft 365 to their portfolio, complete with a range of managed deployment options, to facilitate adoption.

The enabler for this full suite of IT services is a continuous investment in training and certifications.  BMIT Technologies’ prides Microsoft Gold Partner and HPE Gold Partner status for a number of competencies, as well as other industry-leading certifications from a number of other global players. This reflects itself in the capability of the company to understand requirements, propose solutions and eventually deploy and manage systems to the customer’s full satisfaction.

Following BMIT Technologies’ successful IPO earlier this year, and the eventual listing on the Malta Stock Exchange, the company is now aiming at extending further its full suite offering, as well embark on a growth journey, which will see it explore new technologies and new markets.

As you might already be aware, SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 reached the end of their support life-cycle last week, on the 9th of July 2019. This means that these services will no longer receive patches and security updates, rendering them susceptible to malicious attacks.

It’s the right time to reduce your infrastructure costs with free extended security updates, the Azure Hybrid Benefit, and optimized infrastructure by switching to Azure SQL Database. 

We're bringing Microsoft Azure closer to home, to facilitate your migration to current versions for improved security, performance and innovation. Get in touch with us today to get the ball rolling and ensure your business stays protected. We're ready to help.

BMIT Technologies have won the prestigious ‘IT Supplier of the Year’ award at the EGR B2B Awards at The Pavilion, Tower of London on Tuesday 25^th June 2019.

The EGR B2B Awards seek to reward and celebrate the very best service providers in the online gaming industry, recognising the achievements of suppliers from across all the major iGaming disciplines including betting and gaming software, networks, mobile, payments, recruitment, IT and infrastructure.

Jack Mizzi, Chief Marketing Officer who collected the award on behalf of BMIT Technologies along with Nick Tonna, Chief Commercial Officer, stated “This is a source of immense pride and great recognition for us, especially since these awards are most likely the most recognised and coveted in the online gaming industry.”

Nick Tonna continued to add “These past few years were transformative ones for us, as we sought to expand from simply being a data centre to becoming a fully-fledged IT Services provider. This award is testament to our work and a great vote of confidence.” 

BMIT Technologies have been at the forefront in their support to the iGaming industry with services ranging from Co-location to managed IT services and local network setups.

We recently unveiled BMIT Technologies’ new corporate brand identity, which groups together the publicly-listed company and our subsidiary companies under one brand.

At an event held exclusively for our staff and business partners at the BMIT Technologies corporate offices in SmartCity Malta, the fresh identity was revealed in line with our new brand values that focus on our philosophy of harnessing technology to power businesses.

In a short speech, CEO Christian Sammut outlined the company’s vision and how this will enable BMIT Technologies to continue offering innovative and business-relevant solutions to its local and international customer base.

The rest of the management team preceded the brand unveiling with an overview of our new company values, followed by refreshments and a goodie bag as a token of appreciation for all our team members.