Glacis Technologies Summary

        Glacis Technologies provides operational support to the Fortress Group and its operating divisions through innovative, high-quality products and technical support services. These products and services are marketed to external customers through these operating divisions.

        Effective technical support is achieved through the sourcing and testing of existing high quality products which meet the requirements of the Fortress Group and its operating divisions. If no such products exist, the design team will design, prototype and/or manufacture the desired product. Of a secondary, but no less important duty, Glacis personnel are responsible for providing technical support for these products through training, maintenance, upgrading and supply as required. Sales of these products to other organizations are done through the corresponding operating divisions which utilize them in their operations.

Core Competencies

        As Glacis Technologies is an Operations Support division of The Fortress Group of Companies Ltd. its specific Core Competencies are closely aligned to the Core Competencies of the Operating Divisions it supports, which are primarily Security and Intelligence in nature. In general, Glacis Technologies provides the following products and services;

• Product Research and Development, to include any, or all, of the following aspects;
  • Identify and Source External sources;
  • Design to specifications;
  • Prototype;
  • Assemble;
  • Manufacture, and
  • Test innovative new products.


• Technical Support Services, to include any, or all, of the following aspects;
  • Training;
  • Maintenance / Repair;
  • Upgrade, and
  • Other services as required to ensure that the operator is proficient in the use of the product and the products function in the desired manner.

Products

        Glacis Technologies does not market or sell its products directly to external customers. All products developed internally, or sourced externally, for the Fortress Group and its operating divisions are marketed and sold for sale to external customers through that Operating Division. All enquiries about stock, or custom designed, products should be directed to the Director of Operations of that Operating Division.

Services

        As with the products, Glacis Technologies does not market or sell its services directly to external customers. Technical support services for Glacis sourced, or created, products sold to external customers through other Operating Divisions will also be handled by that Operating Division. All enquiries about technical support services (of any product, not just those originating from Glacis Technologies) should be directed to the Director of Operations of that Operating Division.

Experience / History

        Glacis Technologies is the original operating division of the Fortress Group. The company was formed in 1997 under the name Glacis Computers Inc. and has evolved significantly since then. The initial business line was the retail of Commodore-Amiga personal computers and supporting hardware and software. The customer base was Amiga enthusiasts in general and desktop video / animation studios in particular. Glacis quickly became a full-service provider expanding into hardware troubleshooting, maintenance and repair. Sales were global with educational, private and commercial customers on every continent except Africa (and Antarctica to be technical...).

        The Amiga name, technology and intellectual property was sold (many times since Commodore-Amiga went bankrupt in the early 1990's) and new hardware and updates to the operating system was promised by each new owner, but never materialized. (As an aside: as of August 2004, Amiga was sold again and the new owners are actively developing a modern computer system, but no product has made it past the prototype stage to be released for general sales. Most of the numerous third-party developers which provided hardware and software upgrades to existing systems eventually gave up on the Amiga and turned their talents and expertise to the other main-stream Operating Systems and hardware platforms such as Linux, Macintosh, and Windows.)

        Foreseeing the eventual " death" of the Amiga as a business venture, Glacis Computers Inc. was renamed to the Fortress Group of Companies Ltd. in 1999 with the current format and Glacis Technologies became the Technology arm of the business. Initially, computer sales and service were continued with the desktop video and animation studios as the prime markets, but the focus moved to sales and support of high-end Linux network and file servers to manage the obscene amount of storage and network speed required for real-time playback of uncompressed digital video and animation file formats. To support these products and services, Glacis began to design and manufacture specialty computer cables and adaptors.

        The Research and Development / Technical Support mandate of Glacis Technologies was made its official objective once high-speed computer systems and networks became common-place and the other operating divisions of the Fortress Group were established and technical assistance was required.