Spectrum Technologies

About Spectrum Technologies

Established in 1989 Spectrum Technologies has since become a world leader in the design and manufacture of specialised laser-based industrial wire processing equipment for use in the aerospace, defence, rail, automotive, medical and critical industries.

James Burge-Davies, IT Manager at Spectrum Technologies, talks to us about his decision to move its IT infrastructure onto the Access Cloud Hosting platform.

James joined Spectrum two months before the pandemic hit in 2019, and at that time they had old servers on site. This presented James with a challenge – to find a suitable new infrastructure that was cost-effective, reliable and, more importantly, secure.

Solving the problem of an ageing IT infrastructure

“We needed to do something – it was a priority. We needed to replace the outdated servers, but the cost was a real concern for the business. We were looking at a high capital outlay, and with so much uncertainty in our industry at the time, we had to make a well-considered decision.”

For James, it wasn’t just the UK operations he had to think about. While the teams in the UK were working from home and coping as best they could using aging systems, the US team had issues too. Any slowness in performance on the UK side was amplified in the US, and it was becoming difficult to manage.

But with a substantial amount of capital at stake, James needed to be sure that he was providing the business with a solution that was affordable, reliable and secure.

On-Premise vs Cloud

James’ experience was purely on-premise, and that was his preferred choice when looking to replace Spectrum’s infrastructure, so he went out to tender for several proposals for replacing his physical network.

“I was always under the impression that cloud hosting was more expensive in the long-run, which is why I didn’t consider it initially. I did explore the options for cloud hosting, but in many cases my concerns were well founded, as the long term costs were more expensive, even when spread out over 4 or 5 years. It was our Access account manager (we use Access Supply Chain software) who suggested that I speak to the Access Cloud Hosting team. I was surprised, to say the least.”

Access provided a competitive quote for hosting Spectrum’s infrastructure, comparable to costs for an on-premise refit, and worked with James on a rigorous due diligence process, demonstrating the cost benefits

in terms of disaster recovery, redundancy and security. The Access solution ticked a lot of boxes for James and the business, and the cost weighed up well against the physical servers they were originally considering. In fact, the solutions Access put forward were a lot better than what James and Spectrum could do or afford to do themselves.

Access helped James put a business case for cloud hosting forward to Spectrum’s directors, who had previously been wary of moving their infrastructure off-site and into a cloud environment.

Improved performance

As soon as Spectrum moved to the Access cloud platform, James could see how much faster it was, and latency in the US has improved substantially. End user acceptance was quick, with office-based staff moving from direct access to their software from their desktops to a remote desktop system, and everything worked as expected.

“Things are much faster than they were before. We have a 2-week backup of everything, which is a nice thing to have in place. And there are definitely improvements in performance.”

And when James needed to replace some of his remote desktop servers, it was easy for him to do what was needed. It would have been challenging with a physical server environment, but the flexibility he gets with the Access cloud platform means he’s looking forward to upgrading more servers because he knows the implementation will be straight forward.

Continued support

As the only IT person in the business, James is responsible for the entire IT provision, and uses a third-party IT services provider to support him. Adding another provider for his cloud hosting provision could have caused issues, but he has been pleased with the way Access works with him and his IT provider to make sure it’s streamlined.

“Working with Access is great. They never say “we don’t support that” or “you need to talk to someone else” – they go over and above to help with any issues, even if it’s not within their remit.”

As someone new to cloud hosting, James relies on Access to help resolve any issues or queries, and that confidence in a supplier means a lot to him. And knowing that his Access cloud hosting account manager will do his utmost to help gives James even greater peace of mind.

“I’d recommend anyone to look at cloud hosting. It’s so much more flexible and, if you get the costing right, it makes perfect business sense.”

When asked if he’d recommend Access, James said “Yes. In a word, yes. I’d recommend Access for cloud hosting. It’s been a really positive experience and the team has been great. I’m happy with the flexibility it provides, and the potential for the future as well.”

To find out more about how Access Cloud Hosting can transform your IT infrastructure, speak to one of our consultants.