Global expansion sees Houlder running projects across the UK, in the Gulf of Mexico and in South Korean shipyards, among many. With a worldwide team of almost 200 professionals, collaboration is critical to keeping everything in step. Key was the adoption of cloud-based Microsoft Office 365, in line with the company’s strategy of effectively managing in-house infrastructure. The stroke of genius by Andy Matthews was to leverage BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute – also used by Houlder for Microsoft Azure – to carry the Microsoft Office 365 traffic. That way the company’s collaborative tools are independent of the public internet, assuring the highest availability and security levels. Global Microsoft collaboration tools get assured availability and reduced access complexity. Case study - Houlder. BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute brings with it a management wrap that matches the service levels enjoyed by enterprise networks. It confers greater integrity and robustness to the cloud, something you don’t get with public internet connections. Andy Matthews IT Manager Houlder
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Global expansion sees Houlder running projects across the UK, in the Gulf of Mexico and in South Korean shipyards, among many. With a worldwide team of almost 200 professionals, collaboration is critical to keeping everything in step. Key was the adoption of cloud-based Microsoft Office 365, in line with the company’s strategy of effectively managing in-house infrastructure.
The stroke of genius by Andy Matthews was to leverage BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute – also used by Houlder for Microsoft Azure – to carry the Microsoft Office 365 traffic. That way the company’s collaborative tools are independent of the public internet, assuring the highest availability and security levels.
Global Microsoft collaboration tools get assured availability and reduced access complexity.
Case study - Houlder.
BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute brings with it a management wrap that matches the service levels enjoyed by enterprise networks. It confers greater integrity and robustness to the cloud, something you don’t get with public internet connections.
Andy MatthewsIT ManagerHoulder
Global expansion sees Houlder introduce BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute to power Microsoft Office 365 collaborative tools.
Case Study - Houlder.
Fully managed BT service escapes in-house restrictions.An independent design, engineering and project delivery business, Houlder is going places – fast. An independent consultancy for over 25 years, the last three have seen it near double in size. In July 2015 it won a top five place in the Sunday Times HSBC FastTrack International 200 list1.
Growth brings its own pains. The trick is to maintain a small company mindset. Take IT for example. Why employ a massive network team when there’s simply no need? That’s why successful SMEs are among the most avid consumers of cloud services.
Andy Matthews, IT manager at Houlder, says: “Point-to-point VPNs stretched by our expansion were creating an administrative nightmare.” So Houlder moved its network to the BT IP Connect Global cloud.
“It’s a fully managed 24/7 service so my headaches simply evaporated,” Andy continues. “BT spots and fixes issues before I even know about them.”
In touch and in-sync with Microsoft Office 365.With global growth, record Far East contract signings and a new US office in Houston, came the need to work across time zones from east to west and back again. Houlder opted for Microsoft Office 365. Offering powerful collaborative tools like multi-party HD video, shared calendars and Skype for Business, it would keep the whole company in step.
Andy says: “With Microsoft Office 365 I know everything’s always in-sync version-wise. Collaboration has quickly become the way we do business around here. Rather than sending an email, and losing a day waiting for someone to respond, we organise video conferences when all ends of the conversation are in the office. That maintains the momentum.”
In its global marine and offshore design and engineering work, largely in the energy industry, Houlder makes much use of specialist software like CAD, structural and hydrodynamic analysis, and PLM. Microsoft Office 365 screen sharing is vital to co-ordinate the activities of geographically-distributed teams.
Business apps move into the cloud with Microsoft Azure.Next on the agenda was taking an axe to a forest of app-specific standalone servers. Jitterbit Integration Server, Microsoft Exchange, ADFS, Transmittal Creator – you name it Houlder had a server for it. Or two. Or three. Not only horribly expensive to run, each was a risky single point of failure.
“Microsoft Azure took care of the lot,” says Andy. “Now all those business apps run in the cloud. Everyone’s got round-the-clock access to the software tools they need and I’ve got instant support on tap whenever I want it.”
With BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute we benefit from consistently high performance and reliability. Along with its inherent security this supports our strategy of reducing dependence on in-house infrastructure.
It’s a fully managed 24/7 service so my headaches simply evaporated. BT spots and fixes issues before I even know about them.
Andy MatthewsIT ManagerHoulder
Case Study - Houlder.
Availability and security assured with BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute.The masterstroke came with running BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute as the connectivity platform for Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. Offering a secure pathway from the BT IP Connect Global cloud to the Microsoft cloud, this revolutionary product is part of the BT cloud-of-clouds vision.
What’s particularly powerful is that BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute enjoys all the attributes of the BT IP Connect Global platform. So companies like Houlder reduce the time and effort of managing multiple connections to the cloud – no longer having to depend on sometimes-fragile and not-always-secure internet connectivity.
The full BT IP Connect Global management service means BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute customers get assured connectivity – to carrier-class standards – with the SLAs and support guarantees major enterprises expect.
“With BT Cloud Connect ExpressRoute we benefit from consistently high performance and reliability,” says Andy. “Along with its inherent security this supports our strategy of reducing dependence on in-house infrastructure. That way we free-up resources to focus on innovative engineering.”
