Wirehive is a specialist hosting company for digital agencies and. their clients. Its technical director, Simon Green, spoke to 4D

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2 Wirehive Case Study Wirehive is a specialist hosting company for digital agencies and their clients. Its technical director, Simon Green, spoke to 4D about why it chose to make the move to a data centre and how one of its clients has benefited. Why does a business like yours require colocation? Our business is managed hosting, and it s not in our interests to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the ancillary services that support our business. A good colocation provider is what we needed so we could concentrate on what we re good at, which is hosted services, rather than the data centre infrastructure and security behind it. PAGE 2

3 Is it something you discuss with your clients? If so, what does it mean for them? Yes, all the time. We re regularly asked about who we use and where. Colocation is not what we do, so we turned to 4D, as experts in this field, to provide it for us. We consider it a partnership between Wirehive and 4D rather than a traditional client / supplier relationship. PAGE 3

4 How has the move helped you add value to your own client relationships? A little while ago we were working with a large marketing agency. It uses a lot of big data and is based in a large building in central London. It has 75 staff in London and its regional staff use a virtual private network (VPN) to connect to the servers at head office. The IT was all in-house (2-3 racks in a cupboard) so it was quite a risky set-up. It all came to a head when there was a lot of construction work being done nearby. The agency was very worried about business continuity should the office be damaged. Wirehive relocated all the client s IT equipment to 4D Surrey. 4D offered a high speed leased line (1Gb) to the agency s office which opened up the opportunity for remote working facilities. There was no speed difference to our client and no infrastructure required. It s been brilliant for them. The electricity bill has come down by about 1k pcm; it s freed up valuable office space (25 square metres); it s reduced the number of staff required (two full-time members), and most importantly, the risks of damage, theft, fire or flood have gone. It s all been very achievable and affordable thanks to 4D s large network of leased lines based on their multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) technology. PAGE 4

5 The key benefits for Wirehive s client (a large London-based Marketing Agency): Electricity bill down by 1,000 a month Reduced staff by two in IT department Freed up 25m 2 in office space Peace of mind: risks of damage, theft, fire or flood have gone PAGE 5

6 What were the key things that attracted you to this data centre? There were four main things: 1. The staff - Because 4D is a privately-owned, British business we have access to the top tier of senior decision makers. This makes it faster to get to the answers we need and we have faith that the advice we receive is sound. 2. Independence They offer a level of flexibility, openness and consultancy that we couldn t find elsewhere. We ve dealt with the big providers and it was a nightmare. We couldn t do anything outside their prescribed ways of doing things. 3. The location The Surrey data centre offers the benefit of proximity to London without the overheads. And now they have opened facilities in Docklands and The City we have access to colo space from as little as a quarter rack in a central location if we need it. 4. Access 24/7 Lots of data centres say it but they don t always mean it. We can get to our racks on any day, at any time and access remote support should we need it. PAGE 6

7 How did 4D Data Centres compare with other providers? Without naming names, some of the other senior people we dealt with came across as arrogant and unhelpful at other facilities. We also saw some phenomenal facilities very shiny and tempting but again their ways were very prescribed and rigid. 4D offers bespoke solutions. They re very open and flexible How was the migration? When we started out we didn t do a migration, we were starting from scratch. Since then we have done several zero-downtime migrations of hardware between platforms with 4D s help and the customer service and technical assistance we ve received has been excellent. PAGE 7

8 How is the on-going service? 4D offers such a range of colo and connectivity services. As we grow, their services keep developing and we re able to take advantage of more of them. We like the advice we get from 4D. The people there let us know about the latest, most efficient technology that s relevant to a business like ours, such as MPLS. 4D has been instrumental in us getting to the next level as a company in terms of technology. Maintenance communication is something 4D excels at. I know people say it's possible to over-communicate with maintenance s but I believe that extra communication about colocation services is something that adds comfort and reassurance in this instance. Why do you stay with 4D? You know how it can be with some suppliers: you start off with this wonderful working relationship and then you lose the love. It s not like that with 4D. We have consistent service and account management and they proactively suggest things that can help us. PAGE 8

9 About us 4D specialises in providing flexible, highly efficient, resilient and cost-effective connectivity, cloud and colocation solutions. As an independent provider based in the UK, 4D prides itself on its outstanding customer service, 24/7 support and security from its flagship Tier 3 data centre in Surrey. Clients range from start-ups and SMEs, through to IT providers, large corporates, the public sector and organisations in the financial and legal sectors. Connectivity Owning its own diverse dark fibre to Points of Presence (POPs) in major data centres in London enables 4D s connectivity services to far exceed average internet connections. This ensures that speed is optimised, peak periods of activity don t affect operations and that businesses can scale up (and down) to reflect their requirements. Cloud 4D s Cloud Hosting platform combines the company s expertise as a data centre operator with the latest in cloud technology. Simply put, it s a virtual rack called Data Centre as a Service (DCaaS) that offers the ultimate in flexible and costeffective cloud storage. This approach enables businesses to scale their IT infrastructure in line with their needs - upgrading or indeed downsizing on the fly with 4D s highly resilient platform. Colocation Renowned for its reliability and resilience 4D offers a bespoke colocation solution that assures 100% power uptime and is exceptionally secure, cost effective, ecofriendly, flexible and highly scalable with 24/7 on-site support. For more information visit or contact our sales team on PAGE 9