Condor Ferries uses C4L colocation services to help focus on improving IT services

Sept. 25, 2012 - PRLog -- Bournemouth, UK, 25th September 2012 - Data centre and connectivity solutions provider C4L today announced that it is providing colocation and connectivity services to cross-channel ferry operator Condor Ferries. By using C4L’s colocation service, the company can now provide a secure, resilient home from which to manage its business-critical systems, including sharepoint, email, finance and business intelligence capabilities; ensuring that these vital parts of the business provide a continuous service. Moving vital IT services to C4L’s Bournemouth data centre also means that Condor Ferries has reduced the burden of directly managing and housing its IT infrastructure, freeing up the IT team’s time to concentrate on improving services for the business. At the same time, a high-speed fibre connection means that Condor’s business operations can still be accessed quickly and consistently.

“While the core of our business will always be our passengers and freight, technology is an increasingly vital means of providing them with the services they need,” said David Plested, Head of IT for the Condor Group. “For example, our business intelligence capabilities will allow us to more accurately target duty free offers to our passengers. As a result, passengers are given the service suited for them while Condor can make the most of that revenue stream. By using C4L’s colocation services we can ensure a secure and resilient location for our IT, without having to manage the upkeep of our own data centre: this in turn frees up more of our time to expand our IT capabilities, for example by expanding business intelligence as described. With the addition of C4L’s high-speed connections, it’s as if our IT infrastructure is still sat in the next room.”

Condor Ferries chose C4L’s colocation services for a number of reasons. First, the pricing and specifications C4L could offer were superior to other providers: partly because of not being limited to offering data centre space in more expensive areas such as London. It also offered high levels of security and a guarantee of 100% uptime, meaning Condor Ferries is sure its business-critical services would continue.  Lastly, as a local business Condor Ferries knew that C4L would be able to provide a much higher level of customer service and availability.

Condor Ferries has moved the majority of its mission-critical IT services to C4L's Bournemouth data centre. It intends to complete this with the addition of its Internet site to the colocation centre in 2012. The only services left at the firm’s head office will be the File and Print servers and backup systems, meaning that Condor Ferries can save on the space and management expertise otherwise needed to deal with a large IT infrastructure.

“IT has become a necessity for businesses rather than a luxury. However, at the same time it is also becoming more complex and requiring more and more resources,” said Matt Hawkins, MD, C4L. “As a result, attempting to keep every last piece of IT in-house, with all the space, expertise, security and resilience that requires, can mean a level of expense and attention that distracts organisations from their actual core business. We at C4L are delighted to be helping Condor Ferries do what it does best: focusing on its ferry services and the needs of its passengers, instead of becoming tangled up in increasingly complex IT needs.”