Oil group builds local data centres

Project will cost will cost £1m over three years

Oil and gas pipeline engineering group Penspen has completed the first stage of an IT infrastructure overhaul to improve access to data and increase levels of resilience and security.

The project, being undertaken by Fordway Solutions, will cost £1m over three years.

Paul Trotman, IT manager at Penspen, says an aggressive growth and acquisition strategy combined with ageing hardware has made a revamp essential.

‘It had become clear that our IT resources were not keeping pace with our growth and the growing complexity of our operations,’ said Trotman.

‘A particular issue was the sheer size of some files and volume of transactions,’ he said. ‘We do a lot of CAD design work so scanning these in and sending to another site across a data link was not always viable.

‘We developed a series of models in-house to compare various likely prospective solutions. The one that appeared most appropriate was that in which each site would have a local data centre, data server and thin-client capabilities,’ he said.

Local offices now have their own server to store their own data, but corporate information stays at the company’s headquarters in Richmond, Surrey.

Security has been improved with the introduction of thin client systems and better disaster recovery, which will be reduced from 24 hours to two hours.

‘At the end of the day, this is not a cost-saving exercise,’ said Trotman. ‘We just wanted the most effective solution for the business. If there were to be cost savings: great. But we wanted the best IT infrastructure we could get, and one
that could be replicated at international offices.’

What do you think? Email us at [email protected]