Renault on track with IT overhaul

Renault Formula One (F1) says that an overhaul of its IT infrastructure has contributed to the team's recent race success.

The team, which won the first four of this season's Grand Prix, is undertaking a major project to make data management easier and improve staff productivity.

Graeme Hackland, IT manager of the Renault F1 team, says the organisation is working on a collaboration project to replace its email systems, consolidate systems and servers, and make current and archived data available to staff as quickly as possible, regardless of their location.

Renault has been using Veritas NetBackup software to back up data for more than 10 years, and is now deploying Veritas Enterprise Vault email and content archiving tools.

'We used to allow our users to keep everything, and there was no way to archive it in a way we were happy with,' said Hackland.

The technology will allow the team to access archived data quickly and easily, and reduce the strain on existing systems.

Renault's huge data requirements include backing up 24TB of data each month using NetBackup.

Engineering data, information about a car's performance and critical statistics are accumulated on a portable server at the trackside during test sessions.

The data is later retrieved and used to help develop, manufacture and test the company's F1 racing engines.

'The data we get directly from the racetrack is vital for our teams and helps us make key decisions regarding our cars,' said Hackland.

The Renault team has consolidated its Unix systems and is embarking on a similar project to consolidate Windows and Linux-based systems.

Hackland says that if Renault did not consider IT to be an essential element of the business and its ultimate abilities on the track, the budget would not be assigned. 'We believe IT is on the critical path of the car,' he said. 'The machines are on the network.'