Partner Article

Digital companies sign cloud contract

Manchester-based IT infrastructure and managed services specialist ANS Group has completed a project with WDS, a Xerox Company, to provide the wireless managed services provider with a consolidated IT infrastructure to support its new offices and increased staff numbers.

WDS enlisted the support of ANS to migrate its infrastructure to a cloud solution providing the business with a blanket infrastructure, both suiting its current needs, and offering flexibility to adapt to meet future expansion. ANS implemented FlexPod i3, a solution comprising technologies from ANS partners Cisco, NetApp and VMware. FlexPod i3 replaces mixed legacy equipment from a variety of vendors with a consolidated infrastructure that enables central IT management and increases efficiency.

In conjunction with the planned move to a centralised platform, WDS also required improved backup and restore capabilities, and ANS delivered a fully-managed and cloud-based Backup as a Service (BaaS) solution to meet WDS’ increasing requirement for robust recovery systems.

The project comes after ANS recently announced its ninth consecutive year of profit growth, with an increased focused on its FlexPod i3 solution and Managed Services offerings.

Paul Sweeney, Managing Director at ANS, said: “As a growing business, having a sound infrastructure will enable WDS to manage its IT estate from a single source, and deploy business applications to its numerous offices as the business grows.

“The provision of a cloud infrastructure relieves WDS of the need to invest time and money into procuring its own backup processes, leading to greater cost-efficiency by cutting its cost of ownership of IT equipment.”

Jon Smith, Head of IT at WDS, A Xerox Company, said: “As a global business, IT is an enabler for a growing number of our business functions. By choosing ANS’ FlexPod i3 solution we’ve unified our IT infrastructure across a number of locations.

Applications and updates can be deployed from a central source, enabling efficient management of the network and allowing staff to focus on application development rather than maintenance. The new solution will enable us to easily offer Amazon-esque services from in-house infrastructure, and deliver a swift turnaround on customer requirements.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by ANS Group .