Prodrive partners with Brocade to futureproof New IP network  

Prodrive, one of the world’s foremost motorsport and engineering groups, has chosen Brocade  to refresh its 10-year old networking infrastructure with a high-performance, future-proof New IP network and pay-as-you-go financial agility.

Prodrive is a world renowned engineering firm and a winner of an array of motorsport championship titles. The company runs Aston Martin’s programme in the world sports car series, as well as programmes for MINI and VW in international rallying and rallycross. The company also provides advanced technologies, composite materials, and bespoke clothing and accessories for the motorsport, automotive, aerospace, defence and marine markets.

Over the last few years, workforce mobility has become increasingly important to Prodrive with employees now expecting anytime, anywhere access to data and applications. The IT team has deployed virtual desktop software to meet this requirement, but was finding that the existing infrastructure was not equipped to handle the added pressure this put on the network and did not have the scalability needed to support the company’s growth. With the company recently consolidating several operations into a new building, it decided the time was right to update its network infrastructure.

“It is imperative for an organisation such as Prodrive to stay on the cutting edge of design and engineering,” commented Alex Harwood, IT Manager for Prodrive. “For the New IP network, we evaluated several options, but we wanted a solution that would give us the latest technology with the flexibility our business needs, and we wanted to be able to maintain and control the infrastructure ourselves. Brocade’s solutions let us achieve all of that, particularly given the pay-as-you-go financial model we have put in place. We now know that if we suddenly need to hire 100 new staff to work a project, we can quickly and easily scale up the network, and then return to previous levels without being stuck with an excessive hardware investment.”

Crucially, the deployment gives Prodrive a great deal of autonomy in managing the network itself. Since the company is using the pay-as-you-go Brocade Network Subscription service, which allows organisations to pay for network infrastructure as-a-service over time, the network can be quickly and easily updated as and when business requirements change.

Brocade’s Professional Services team provided configuration and design support, and worked with Prodrive’s infrastructure team to select the most appropriate mix of technologies and transfer knowledge. Collectively the solutions increased network reliability while increasing performance, and streamlined network management and monitoring with high visibility to maximise the effectiveness of a lean IT team.

This new deployment is the latest in a long-standing relationship with Brocade, and Prodrive expects to deploy additional server clusters and begin using more cloud services in the future. The team is confident that the new network will allow them to scale without any disruption to the business.

Harwood commented; “I like to think we have future-proofed ourselves for anything and our New IP network has already increased our application performance. Everyone from the engineers to the manufacturing teams is now able to design, test, review, and deliver results faster and more reliably. We’ve had a great relationship with Brocade for the past 10 years and we know that we can rely on them to deliver the highest performance, reliability, and value for the business.”

“Like many businesses, Prodrive has seen significant changes in how its employees use technology in recent years,” commented Joy Gardham, Regional Director, EMEA West, Brocade, “Users now expect to be able to access the applications and data that they need to do their jobs at any time and from any location. For a highly dynamic business such as Prodrive this is particularly important; the company is constantly changing and it needs a New IP network infrastructure that can empower that change, rather than inhibit it. Brocade Network Subscription allows the IT team to acquire the network they need today and update it as their requirements change, without any penalties, origination fees or upfront investment. We are delighted that Prodrive has chosen to continue with Brocade as its network partner and we look forward to working closely with the team to help them achieve even more success in the future.”