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The Client
The development of a major new shopping scheme in the centre of the City of Cambridge - the Grand Arcade - meant that the City Council had to move from one its existing buildings which was scheduled for demolition, and relocate to new premises in Lyon House. Having previously worked with Redstone on a number of projects, James Nightingale, the Council’s IT Contracts Manager, contacted Redstone Managed Solutions about providing a new Local Area Network (LAN) extension to their main site for the two hundred staff who would be relocating.

Tariq Saied, Managing Director at Redstone ManagedSolutions commented: "Whilst we could have provided the Council with a traditional LAN extension, our recommendation to the IT team was that we could deliver a full WAN utilising our own Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). We believed that not only would this deliver a very cost-effective solution but that the Council would also be able to gain access to the full range of benefi ts offered by the Redstone MAN, including enhanced resilience, ease of upgrade, flexibility and future-proofing.

James Nightingale: "We were impressed by the solution proposed by Redstone and the decision to adopt this approach. The new WAN was fully operational within 2 months of placing the order, in good time for the move to the new building, and it is providing us with a very fast, robust solution. I am particularly pleased that we will be able to upgrade from our current 100 MB to a gigabit, when the need arrives, without any disruption to the work of our staff.

Redstone has also installed cabling in the new building, and will be enabling the Council to run their Siemens phone system across the MAN, a solution which will save costs and also deliver significantly improved performance.

Solution: Co-location hosting services, Internet, Black Spider
Open Objects specialises in the development of indexing Web search engines. The company is based at the St. John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge. Rick Watson, the company’s Network Manager, was initially attracted by the bandwidth and flexibility offered by Redstone’s MAN. Open Objects was also keen to work with a local company that would be prepared to give more individual and personal attention to its customers.

Rick Watson: "We took the decision to move from our existing supplier of communications services to Redstone for a number of reasons. Clearly the MAN was a key factor in our decision, but we were also keen to utilise the co-location operation offered by Redstone which, compared with our previous supplier, offered better security and a better overall service.

Redstone has provided Open Objects with Internet connectivity, email services and domain names. In addition, the company has installed Black Spider spam filtering, which is performing extremely well in blocking unwanted and obtrusive emails. Open Objects also use Redstone’s Hosting Suite in Cambridge to provide co-location for their servers.

"I am particularly pleased that we will be able to upgrade from our current 100 MB to a gigabit, when the need arrives."
James Nightingale, Cambridge City Council

Rick Watson: "Fast, reliable and secure communications are absolutely crucial to the day-to-day business of Open Objects, and we have been very pleased with the performance of the systems and services from Redstone, together with their ongoing support. For a small company, I fi nd it particularly helpful to be able to turn to one supplier for all our communications needs, rather than having to deal with multiple contracts and the all too common problem of having to identify which supplier is responsible for which particular system whenever there is a problem. By working with just Redstone, we avoid such timewasting frustrations and have made real effi ciency gains in the day-to-day running of our business."

Solution: Internet, Firewall, Phone System, Web Hosting
Based on the Cambridge Science Park, Smart Holograms is an early-stage company that has exclusive rights to the sensor hologram technology invented at Cambridge University by Professor Chris Lowe and his scientifi c team. To date, Smart has raised £5.5 million in funding from Cambridge University Challenge Fund, Partnerships UK and Porton Capital. The latter two Venture Capital fi rms also have an option to invest a further £2 million. The company currently has a team of 29 people (including 13 PhDs). In addition to the Science Park Offi ce, Smart Holograms also has an office in San Ramon, USA.

Chris Culshaw, the company’s IT Manager, has used Redstone’s services in the past and with Smart Hologram’s planned move to the Cambridge Science Park, he contacted them to discuss the need for Internet access, a phone system, email and web hosting services. He explained: “A key attraction engaging with Redstone was their Metropolitan Area Network. For a small company, being connected to the MAN provides us with a number of advantages, including centralised back-up, reliability, speed and reduced costs. In addition, for a start-up organisation it is essential to have as much flexibility as possible to support our plans for significant expansion. The Redstone MAN delivers all these attributes.

Redstone installed two Cisco switches, a 2 Mbit/s connection to the MAN, a PBX Firewall and VPN (virtual private network), and an Avaya IP Office phone system. The company is also providing Smart Holograms with email and web hosting services.

Chris Culshaw: "The installation of our communications systems went very well and Redstone is now providing us with twentyfour hour support, another key benefit for a small company.

"I also find it reassuring to work with a company that is local to where we are based and with whom I have been able to form a very good, friendly relationship."

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