Northdoor provides and manages compute and storage infrastructure both in the cloud and on-premises
Maintaining on-premises IT infrastructure represents a significant cost and risk, especially when enterprises have a mix of legacy and more modern platforms. To address this challenge, many companies are seeking ways to limit the number and variety of systems they run. Doing so also reduces the level of technical skills they need in-house – typically the largest element in IT infrastructure costs.
Migrating some or all systems to the cloud is often seen as a sure-fire way to trim expenditure, but many organisations have found that the grass is not always greener. The speed and convenience of setting up new resources in the cloud means that it is all too easy for enterprises to lose control – replacing fixed in-house capital costs with spiralling external operational costs.
Get in touch with Northdoor to learn more about our infrastructure services and solutions:
Solution
Infrastructure Hybrid CloudNorthdoor can determine the optimal platform – whether on-premises or in the cloud – for your key business systems, and help you migrate and manage them
Solution
Public Cloud SolutionsNorthdoor offers comprehensive managed services, enabling businesses to completely remove the administrative overhead of running a public cloud landscape
Solution
Private Cloud ServicesModernise your on-premises data centre to reduce costs, enhance performance, and benefit from the latest cloud technologies
Solution
Data Storage SolutionsDoes your IT infrastructure support the growing needs of your company? Invest in robust data storage solutions for improved IT efficiency
Solution
IBM Power SystemsAs an IBM Platinum partner, Northdoor has the skills and experience to maximise the value of IBM Power Systems landscapes.
Solution
IBM PowerHA SolutionsNorthdoor plc is a Platinum level IBM Business Partner recognised as a Specialist for IBM Power Systems and Expert for IBM Storage product families.
Solution
External Storage for IBM iDrive more value from IBM i on Power Systems by deploying IBM FlashSystem external storage, backed by expertise from Northdoor.
Solution
Managed Services OverviewFor over 30 years our specialists have been delivering IT managed services. Contact us to see how we can deliver secure and efficient IT solutions for your business
Solution
Cloud SecuritySecure your cloud-based systems and protect sensitive data against the rising threat of cyber crime with Cloud Security from Northdoor
As you determine the best balance between on-premises and cloud infrastructure, Northdoor can help you migrate to a new hybrid cloud architecture that offers equal or greater capabilities, at sustainably lower cost and risk.
Based on 30 years’ experience serving blue-chip enterprises, Northdoor has built up a structured approach and proprietary methodologies for analysing infrastructure against present and future business requirements. We give businesses a clear and organised picture of their existing IT resources and the flows of business information between them. We then propose optimised hybrid architectures that migrate IT resources to the cloud where appropriate, and otherwise move them to more efficient and modern platforms. Northdoor offers a full spectrum of infrastructure services – from design to deployment, and from support to outsourced operations – while managing risk every step of the way.
The disadvantages of continuing to run legacy platforms are clear: older technology is more costly to support as the relevant skillsets become rarer, difficult to integrate with newer technologies, and can suffer from significant reliability issues.
A wholesale migration to the cloud can therefore seem an attractive option, but enterprises should consider that this may simply move the reliability challenge to a new weakest link. When a mission-critical system is no longer at the end of the hallway but rather at the end of a long wire, you need to consider what might happen if that network connection is severed.
As part of ongoing risk assessments, Northdoor works with businesses to determine the optimal platform and location for systems, and ensures that a network with the appropriate speed, capacity and resilience is designed into the solution from day one.
Enterprises are spoilt for choice when it comes to public cloud infrastructure. Dozens of providers – large and small, global and local, generalist and specialist – vie for attention, all of them promising low costs, high performance and exceptional resilience. Negotiating this landscape to find the best provider can be bewildering.
It can be equally challenging to determine the right balance between on-premises, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Northdoor has in-depth knowledge of the major public cloud offerings and long experience of advising enterprises on the best combination of platforms for their individual business needs. We also understand that the skillsets needed to manage cloud environments have evolved: in addition to handling the technology, we optimise the ongoing expenditure to ensure that our clients achieve long-term value from their cloud infrastructure service.
By the end of 2019 Blue Cube Travel had a robust and secure setup. Kevin Trill, Director of Technology and Transformation comments:
“Back in 2018/2019 we experienced loss of data lines and power cuts, but the solution still operated without being dependant on a single Blue Cube Travel location. Additionally, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit we had to move to remote working and, thanks to Northdoor, we already had the infrastructure in place to enable employees to work from home, aside from provisioning a few extra laptops.”
Blue Cube Travel recognises how important it is to have robust networking and security infrastructure in place and, as it has matured its requirements, so it has transitioned onto different providers to support its needs. Being hosted in Microsoft Azure made the business acutely aware of the myriad of solutions and options which are possible. Kevin Trill from Blue Cube Travel continues:
“If you don’t have a specialist partner, like Northdoor, who understands your business, the cloud, and all the possible options, it can quickly represent a risk to your organisation, especially if you haven’t implemented the right security solutions.”
Stace, a construction and property consultancy company with 170 staff in various locations, had a sprawling IT infrastructure which was failing to meet the demands of an expanding business. Outages and unplanned downtime were regular events, and the IT internal team needed expert support to help it create and deliver a new strategy for IT.
Northdoor completely rearchitected the Citrix environment and introduced a task-appropriate, virtualised infrastructure using IBM Storage technology. In addition to delivering much-needed stability, Northdoor separated the desktop and server environments and provided dedicated resources for each, increasing reliability. A disaster recovery service was designed and implemented, and a managed services wrapper complements the in-house team to increase availability and user confidence.
As part of our ‘practice what we preach’ principle, Northdoor carried out an assessment to look at the cost and performance of moving our own SaaS solution, Sanctions Checker, into the Microsoft Azure cloud. Following our successful migration to Azure, we are able to offer greater performance, reliability, capacity and flexibility to the businesses that depend on this service on a day-to-day basis.
Working with Northdoor enabled Best Western GB to meet its key objective rapidly and at low risk: moving existing member websites to a more flexible and secure platform. Thanks to both the Azure cloud and Northdoor’s responsive management services, Best Western GB can now create websites and services much faster and more cost-effectively than before. In a digital-led market, this gives the business a new competitive edge, with the potential for significant ROI in future. Read the full case study here.
As an IBM Platinum Business Partner, Northdoor has deep experience in IBM Systems and IBM Storage private cloud technologies as well as IBM Cloud technologies. We have won multiple IBM awards for technical excellence.
Northdoor continues to win public recognition for ground-breaking cloud deployments on behalf of clients. Click below to find out more about our latest successes, awards and achievements.
The award is for the work Northdoor undertook with market-leading corporate travel management company, Blue Cube Travel who moved from an on-premises, server-based environment to the Azure cloud.
Blue Cube Travel’s Microsoft Azure cloud migration reduced cyber risk, enabled stronger cyber-security policies and future-proofed infrastructure.
Request a demo or contact sales on: 0207 448 8500
Request a consultationSubscribe to our newsletter to get the very latest insights and updates in the world of enterprise IT and data security:
