Yacht Havens Group moves to the cloud to simplify access to its data

Marina operator reduces costs and adds online functions for its customers, as it puts its trust in the cloud

Marina operator The Yacht Havens Group (YHG) has consolidated and migrated its IT systems to the cloud to simplify access to its data, reduce costs and add online functions for its customers.

YHG owns and operates eight marinas in the UK and has about 120 staff. Each site had its own server, and Ben Fox, YHG's IT manager, told Computing that the company decided to migrate its servers to the cloud after examining the business case.

"We had a look at where the business was going to go. We were running Windows Server 2003 on all eight of our sites and they were coming to the end of their lifetime. We then completed a cost analysis of replacing them or completing a move to the cloud. We chose the cloud based on the benefits it offered us," he explained.

Fox said that YHG chose Databarracks because it had built up a relationship of trust having used the firm for its online backup for six years.

"We were also in talks with other providers such as Rackspace but they weren't flexible on the contract, whereas any point could be discussed with Databarracks and amended for our specific requirements. This was a big bonus, as it meant both the IT and managerial teams were satisfied on a legal and technical basis," he said.

YHG started its migration to the cloud in July 2011and completed it in November.

Fox explained that initially YHG's head office could not see real-time or current data from remote sites due to VPN restrictions, but moving over to the cloud enabled access to live data from any location.

"We had an Active Directory domain spanning all eight sites running on Windows Server 2003. The DNS and Active Directory were replicated across each site through anIPsec VPN over our ADSL lines."

Yacht Havens Group moves to the cloud to simplify access to its data

Marina operator reduces costs and adds online functions for its customers, as it puts its trust in the cloud

"At the end of each month a service would run which compacted, copied and extracted the relevant accounting data from each remote site back to our head office. This usually took between three and five hours to complete because of the speed of our VPN connection and it would run overnight. This meant that we were never able to work on a live copy of a remote sites' data from our head office," he said.

Fox added that by migrating to the cloud, the copying process would no longer be required as all relevant staff would have direct access to any of the sites' data.

"It means that all of the reporting is much faster and easier. Where we have sites that are fairly close to one another, they can both see each others' live data of when a customer is coming in and out, what their names and statements are which is useful for administration and back-up purposes.

"We also have a standardised version of all software such as Microsoft Office which is easier to patch, update and maintain. We have got added functions of online payments and statements.

"Furthermore, sharing files is much easier as they are all stored in one central location meaning there are no e-mails of updated reports constantly being sent around. It has also given our managers the ability to work remotely which has increased our efficiency," he added.

Fox said that YHG would reduce costs as it no longer needs to buy servers or PCs, as it can replace them with thin clients. Costs would also be saved on renewals, licences and on IT staff no longer needing to travel to sites to fix system issues.

He concluded by emphasising that security is a big issue for the company.

"We had to have a level of trust with a third party [Databarracks] as they own the data from a security point of view. One of the biggest obstacles was to accept that our data would no longer be held in our location.

"However, the security has been taken care of by Databarracks and they only allow our IP addresses to access the cloud," he said.