OpSource demonstrated the highest level of service with a 100-percent uptime guarantee, which was a big selling point.

1. Case Study
ClearBenefits Improves
Reliability and Business
Continuity with OpSource
Case Study Highlights “OpSource demonstrated the highest level of service with a
100-percent uptime guarantee, which was a big selling point.
ClearBenefits offers benefits
enrollment technology,
They also had a very accommodating process by which we could
benefits outsourcing, employee work together in a partnership.”
communication, and
wellness services through a Frank Dellé
Director of Systems and Security
Software-as-a-Service model.
The company’s flexible benefits
ClearBenefits Automates the Employee Benefits
SaaS platform is used by
Enrollment Process
companies in industries ranging
Founded in 1999, ClearBenefits has more than a decade of experience
from healthcare to technology
providing best-of-breed benefits management technology, support, and
to business services.
integrated administration services that support the delivery of benefits
Challenge: Find a SaaS and for over 150,000 employees. Customers include industry leaders such as
cloud hosting provider that Lam Research, General Atomics, Equinix, Blue Shield of California, and
could deliver higher reliability Sutter Health. ClearBenefits’ technology and services packages are fully
and enable cost-effective integrated to provide end-to-end benefits outsourcing for employers of
business continuity. all sizes.
Solution: OpSource Managed
ClearBenefits automates the time-consuming and complex world of
Hosting with Application
heath plan administration, through a rules-based system that guides
Operations™, OpSource Cloud
employees step-by-step through the enrollment process via an intuitive
Hosting, and Cloud-based
online portal that facilitates information sharing between employers,
Disaster Recovery.
insurance carriers and other stakeholders. The company also manages
OpSource was selected as the the annual employee enrollment process as well as life-event changes
managed hosting and cloud throughout the year.
hosting provider based on
flexibility, technical expertise, Challenge: Increasing Reliability and Availability
and professional deployment. Historically ClearBenefits outsourced its IT services to support its business
and the Benefits Platform application. As the demands for uptime and
service quality for servers, storage and networking devices grew, so did
the complexities with managing the entire infrastructure for service
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. CLEARBENEFITS IMPROVES RELIABILITY AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY WITH OPSOURCE
driven performance. “We did not attention that we didn’t think
have the desired visibility over the we get with a large provider like
process of installing, managing, IBM.”
and maintaining the hardware and
software, and another challenge ClearBenefits chose OpSource
was monitoring and uptime Managed Hosting in late
measurements,” says Frank Dellé, 2009. ClearBenefits operates a
Director of systems and security. traditional infrastructure with
a multi-tiered network that
By 2009, it became clear the spans from front-end load
company was interested in raising balancers through a DMZ
performance levels and reducing containing the web servers
“Before OpSource, we offered service interruptions due to to a secured back-end network
multiple single points of failure. “It where the database resides.
a 95% uptime SLA. Today we
was not pretty giving root cause VPNs connect various sites to
have a stable site and deliver
analysis reports, to our executive the backend. “That stack is
an uptime of 99.9 percent,
team. The unified concern was the entirely managed by OpSource,”
which is a testament to Op- potential negative impact to the says Dellé. OpSource provides
Source.” perception of ClearBenefits,” performance monitoring, OS
says Dellé. patch management, security
management, hardware
Frank Dellé At that point the forecast to grow deployment, and much of the
Director of Systems and Security
and to meet the demands of an application deployment. “We
expanding client base made it have a robust and mature process
clear to seek another direction. for handing off major software
release updates to OpSource.”
Solution Dellé also makes use of all of the
ClearBenefits searched the native support tools provided by
managed hosting services market OpSource, including the trouble
for a provider that could offer ticketing portal.
a high level of reliability and
management skills. One of More recently, ClearBenefits
the providers they evaluated turned to OpSource to provide
was OpSource. “OpSource on-demand business continuity
demonstrated the highest level of capabilities. OpSource helped
service with a 100-percent uptime ClearBenefits set up a hybrid
guarantee, which was a major cloud using its Cloud offering for
selling point,” says Dellé. “They the public-facing front end, and
also offered to partner with us to a private database back end. The
create the best solution for our business continuity site is hosted
business. In addition, OpSource separately from their primary
provided a level of service and site. Data updates are shipped
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. CLEARBENEFITS IMPROVES RELIABILITY AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY WITH OPSOURCE
to the site daily. If a catastrophic individuals is a big responsibility.
failure occurs at the primary site, ClearBenefits must comply with
the cloud infrastructure at the Heath Insurance Portability
secondary site can be activated in and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
less than 24 hours. “It’s very cost regulations. “The security
effective,” says Dellé. “We don’t requirements are strict,”
pay for any ongoing management says Dellé. “OpSource helps
costs except reserving hardware us meet them with its SAS70
and preconfigured Cloud Type II and HIPAA Business
instances.” ClearBenefits brings Associate certifications.”
up the secondary site several
times a year for testing, refreshing The recent addition of
the database, and upgrading the OpSource Cloud-based Disaster
ClearBenefits application software Recovery services has allowed
to the latest release. ClearBenefits to put in place
a business continuity strategy
Impact: Reliability, Security, that meets their clients’
and Productivity requirements at a price one tenth
Moving to OpSource has had a the cost of a typical business
dramatic affect on the reliability continuity implementation.
and availability of ClearBenefits’
SaaS application. “Before Leveraging OpSource has led
OpSource we were able to offer to internal efficiencies that
an SLA of just 95 percent. Today allow ClearBenefits’ small team
we have a stable site and deliver to become more productive
an uptime of 99.9 percent, which and proactive. Dellé credits
is a testament to OpSource,” OpSource with the flexibility
says Dellé. to accommodate requests,
technical and operational
Handling personal health expertise, and professional
information for 150,000 deployment of services for new
requests.”OpSource has enabled
ClearBenefits to manage to
seasonal peak performance.”
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.

4. CLEARBENEFITS IMPROVES RELIABILITY AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY WITH OPSOURCE
About ClearBenefits
Founded in 1999, ClearBenefits is one of the fastest growing benefits technology vendors in the market.
ClearBenefits offers benefits enrollment technology, benefits outsourcing, employee communication
and wellness services. The company’s flexible benefits platform is used by companies in industries
ranging from healthcare to technology to business services. ClearBenefits is headquartered in Santa
Clara, CA. Learn more at www.clearbenefits.com.
About OpSource
Founded in 2002, OpSource provides cloud and managed hosting solutions that enable businesses to
accelerate growth and scale operations while controlling costs and reducing IT infrastructure support
risks. Headquartered in Santa Clara, with operations in California, Virginia, the UK, Ireland, and India,
more than 600 enterprises, service providers and Software-as-a-Service ISVs rely on OpSource’s expertise,
experience and cloud automation technology to operate high-availability, business-critical hosting
environments. OpSource is a Dimension Data company. www.opsource.net.
Corporate Headquarters
5201 Great America Parkway, Suite 120, Santa Clara, CA 95054, 1-800-664-9973 (USA)
+353 1 661 9979 (EMEA), sales@opsource.net, www.opsource.net
© 2011 OpSource, Inc. All rights reserved.