Getmapping
Getmapping provide multi-year national coverage of aerial data, which presents a huge challenge for storage and serving customers in a speedy fashion. After running into some issues with their previous supplier, and with the need for greater flexibility, they turned to Redcentric in their search for a managed service provider.
Why colocation?
Getmapping photos are updated annually, so multi-year national coverage of aerial data can be challenging, both in terms of storage capacity and speed of access. Things like securing and manning a building 24/7 would represent further challenges, so Getmapping were looking for a reliable, resilient facility to host eCommerce and web services. In addition, government clients required the management and security offered by a professional data centre like Redcentric.
Getmapping had experienced some issues with their incumbent DC provider. Costs were escalating, response times were slow and there was inflexibility around power requirements. Moreover, the time lost in commuting to the data centre was impacting productivity.
Supported data centre migration
Access to increased network speeds
Improved service and support levels
“The moving day went brilliantly. From a service perspective, our clients did not know a thing, which is a testament to the virtualised platform. Without a solution like that we could not have achieved such a seamless move.”
What advice would you give to businesses looking for a colocation provider?
- Work out your budget
- Define your expectations
- Look at the number of line providers
- Do your research
- Visit the data centres
- Discuss the migration process
- Be clear about the levels of support required
What was the migration experience like?
The migration was flawless. Leading up to the migration, there was a choice to either ensure no downtime in the move or to increase redundancy. At the time, TomTom was a big customer and they could not afford to have any disruption to services, so Getmapping went through a process of virtualising the SANs.
Getmapping won a contract to supply aerial imagery to the Scottish Government, where speed, quality and service level requirements were critical. This was a high profile contract where aerial imagery is relied upon by a number of users in Scotland, so reliable data centre services are crucial to the company’s reputation.
What Getmapping have to say
“After meeting with Redcentric, we found them to be friendlier with a more personal approach than other providers. When we initially explained the pains we were experiencing, Redcentric listened and showed a clear understanding about what we needed. It made Getmapping feel like they genuinely cared about providing us with a good solution.” Gavin Sullivan, Deputy Head of Europe.