Executive summary
Challenge: WPA is a major player in the UK health insurance market, providing an extensive range of private medical insurance plans, winning many awards for outstanding customer satisfaction. Its customers need access to their insurance policies 24/7, so availability is key. WPA sought a single technology vendor to provide an end-to-end service for both hosting and networking.
Solution: Claranet were chosen on different occasions by WPA to provide a holistic managed hosting and network solution which includes a Managed Application Hosting service based around a fully-virtualised environment, and a VPN between three sites integrated with Claranet’s own MPLS network with a dual circuit resilient connection to the internet.
Result: Peace of mind, providing resilient network and system architecture with high availability of mission-critical application and high performance.
Highly available service
WPA customers required access to their insurance policies at all times of the day or night, so availability was critical. They sought a single technology vendor to provide an end-to-end service for both hosting and networking.
As Claranet was already a trusted technology business partner which shares the same values as WPA - one that could consult on best practice and service management into the future - we asked them to help design our new solution.
WPA’s IT Operations Manager
Tailored solution
Claranet implemented a Managed Hosting service comprising multiple servers, integrated with a resilient MPLS Virtual Private Network (VPN) to 3 UK sites. The use of dual circuits was employed to deliver automated failover between circuits and increase availability of the network and its resources.
Claranet hosts and manages WPA’s:
- Internal accounting and business systems, which are used from many locations around the globe
- Company-wide Microsoft Exchange platform
Claranet integrated a highly-resilient MPLS network, incorporating IPSec VPN connectivity between UK locations and India. Claranet also implemented a Storage Area Network (SAN), as well as an Managed Applocation service, to meet WPA’s storage requirements. The service includes centralised internet breakout, terminated at one of Claranet’s datacentres in London where Claranet provides WPA with dual circuit, resilient connectivity to the internet.
The entire service employs best-of-breed software, hardware and networking components, such as Cisco, Microsoft, HP and EMC and is proactively managed and monitored by Claranet’s monitoring and alarming systems.
Claranet takes responsibility for overall service availability, which enables WPA to concentrate on running the business rather than worrying about our IT infrastructure.
WPA’s IT Operations Manager
WPA is committed to delivering outstanding levels of customer service and in Claranet we have identified an organisation that is willing to share this commitment with us. As a consequence the technical solution, and its delivery and management, is at a performance level that in many cases exceeds our expectations.
WPA's Director of Best Practice
Business benefits
- Peace of mind, providing resilient network and system architecture with high availability of mission-critical applications
- High performance, delivering fast and reliable access to business resources
- Secure architecture protecting sensitive WPA client data
- Flexible, highly scalable solution to ensure customer service delivery now and into the future
- Access to detailed technical consultation and ongoing performance reviews to maximize performance and ensure the solution takes advantage of technological developments into the future