FNTS: Custom Managed IT Services and Multi-Cloud Solutions

Evaluating a managed services provider (MSP) requires looking beyond basic uptime stats to find a partner that understands the complexity of heterogeneous IT environments. FNTS (First National Technology Solutions) occupies a unique niche in the market, specializing in the management of both modern cloud infrastructures and legacy 'big iron' systems like IBM i and Mainframes.

This guide is designed for IT leaders and procurement professionals who need to move away from the burden of hardware management without sacrificing the security or performance of their mission-critical applications. In the following sections, we will break down the FNTS service portfolio, their specific strengths in compliance-heavy industries, and the technical prerequisites needed to ensure a successful partnership. By the end of this guide, you will have a clear framework for determining if FNTS is the right strategic fit for your organization’s digital transformation journey.

• Managed Mainframe & IBM i Services: FNTS is a leader in managing legacy environments, providing specialized talent and hardware that is increasingly difficult to maintain in-house.
• Hybrid Cloud Strategy: Seamless orchestration between private cloud environments and public cloud giants (Azure, AWS), allowing for a 'best-fit' workload placement.
• Security-First Managed Services: Includes managed firewall, IDS/IPS, endpoint protection, and SIEM/Log management as integrated components rather than afterthoughts.
• Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS): Customizable RTO/RPO targets with automated failover testing to ensure business continuity for critical systems.
• Compliance-as-a-Service: Pre-configured environments that meet SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA requirements, including regular audit support.
• 24/7/365 Operations Center: US-based technical support and proactive monitoring that acts as an extension of the client's internal IT team.

• Financial Services Core Banking: A mid-sized bank moves its IBM i core banking system to FNTS to gain 24/7 monitoring and professional management, reducing the risk associated with retiring in-house mainframe experts.
• Healthcare Provider Data Consolidation: A hospital system uses FNTS Private Cloud to host legacy EMR data that must remain highly secure and HIPAA compliant, while using FNTS-managed Azure for their modern patient portal.
• Retail E-commerce Scaling: A retailer hosts its steady-state database on FNTS infrastructure but 'bursts' its web front-end to AWS during peak holiday seasons, managed through a single FNTS interface.
• Manufacturing Disaster Recovery: A global manufacturer utilizes FNTS for a secondary DR site, ensuring that if their primary on-premises data center fails, their ERP system can failover to FNTS with minimal downtime.

• Resource-Based Pricing: Typical for Private Cloud and Legacy (IBM i/Mainframe) services, based on CPU, Memory, and Storage consumption.
• Management Fees: A flat monthly fee per device or per OS instance for managed services (patching, monitoring, backup).
• Public Cloud Resale/Management: Often structured as a percentage of the total public cloud spend (AWS/Azure) or a fixed fee for governance and optimization services.
• Project-Based Fees: One-time costs for initial migration, architectural design, and onboarding.
• Variable Costs: Data egress fees (though often minimized via FNTS's network backbone) and additional 'burst' capacity for seasonal workloads.
• Contract Terms: Typically 12 to 36-month commitments, with discounts available for longer-term partnerships.

• Hypervisor Compatibility: Support for VMware-based workloads; migrations from Hyper-V or Nutanix may require conversion tools.
• Legacy OS Versions: For IBM i and Mainframe, clients should be on supported or 'extended support' versions of OS/400 or z/OS to ensure stability.
• Bandwidth Requirements: Minimum 100Mbps dedicated connection recommended for initial data migration and ongoing replication.
• Hardware Compatibility: While FNTS provides the hardware, any specific proprietary hardware appliances (e.g., specialized security modules) must be vetted for data center hosting.
• Agent Installation: Managed services require the installation of monitoring and backup agents on all guest operating systems.

• Internal Alignment: Stakeholders must define which workloads are 'core' (to keep in-house) versus 'context' (to move to FNTS management).
• Change Management: Transitioning to a managed service requires a shift in IT culture from 'hardware maintenance' to 'service level management.'
• Documentation Readiness: Success depends on the buyer providing accurate current-state documentation, including network diagrams, software versions, and dependency maps.
• Executive Sponsorship: Given that FNTS often handles mission-critical legacy systems, buy-in from the CTO/CFO is essential to validate the long-term ROI of managed services versus capital expenditure cycles.
• Skill Shift: Your internal team will need to transition from 'doers' to 'orchestrators' who manage the relationship and oversee SLA performance.

• Phase 1: Discovery & Assessment (2–4 Weeks): Deep dive into current infrastructure, application dependencies, and compliance requirements.
• Phase 2: Architecture & Design (3–5 Weeks): Designing the landing zone, network connectivity (VPN/Direct Connect), and backup/DR schemas.
• Phase 3: Environment Build (4–6 Weeks): Provisioning of hardware (IBM i, Mainframe, or x86) and configuring security layers.
• Phase 4: Migration & Testing (Variable 4–12 Weeks): Moving data and applications. This timeline depends heavily on data volume and the complexity of legacy integrations.
• Phase 5: Go-Live & Handover (1–2 Weeks): Final cutover, stabilization period, and transition to the FNTS 24/7 support desk.
• Note: Total timeline typically ranges from 3 to 6 months depending on the scale of the migration.

• Dedicated Account Management: Each client is assigned a Technical Account Manager (TAM) and a Customer Success Manager.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Tiered SLAs ranging from 99.9% to 99.999% availability depending on the architecture.
• US-Based Support: 24/7/365 access to Level 2 and Level 3 engineers located in the United States.
• Technical Documentation: Access to a client portal for real-time performance monitoring, ticket tracking, and inventory management.
• Professional Services: On-demand access to cloud architects and security consultants for roadmap planning and special projects.

• Multi-Cloud Connectivity: FNTS provides low-latency on-ramps to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, allowing legacy workloads to interact with modern cloud-native apps.
• API & Tooling: Support for standard ITSM integrations (e.g., ServiceNow) for ticket syncing and lifecycle management.
• Network Integration: Support for MPLS, SD-WAN, and site-to-site VPNs to ensure seamless extension of the corporate network to FNTS data centers.
• Data Synchronization: Tools for real-time data replication (especially for IBM i and Mainframe environments) to support High Availability and Disaster Recovery.
• Identity Management: Integration with Active Directory/LDAP for centralized user access control across managed environments.

• Certifications: SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II, and PCI-DSS compliant data centers.
• Healthcare Ready: Fully HIPAA and HITRUST-aligned processes for managing Protected Health Information (PHI).
• Network Security: Multi-tenant and dedicated firewall options, DDoS protection, and encrypted data-at-rest/in-transit.
• Identity Governance: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) requirements for all administrative access to client environments.
• Physical Security: Tier IV data center standards with biometric access, 24/7 onsite security personnel, and full environmental redundancies.
• Audit Support: FNTS provides clients with the necessary documentation and 'right to audit' to satisfy internal and external regulatory bodies.