Construction and civil engineering company, BAM Nuttall, is upgrading the wide area network (WAN) that delivers IT connectivity to its 200+ UK construction sites and office locations. 

 

The company, which needs onsite connectivity to enable it engineers to work effectively, is responding to escalating demand by increasing the bandwidth at many of its WAN locations and long term construction sites, as well as its disaster recovery (DR) site in Halesowen.

 

Key locations on the WAN are being given multiple, load balanced Internet links that automatically failover for business continuity. The upgrade is being managed by CI-Net, which was recently awarded a renewed five year contract to manage BAM Nuttall’s WAN and connectivity requirements, including delivering connections to all new construction projects.

 

“2MB circuits on our WAN are being increased to 100MB and certain high traffic lines are getting even bigger connections to help address increasing demand,” said Steve Shepherd, Head of ICT services for BAM Nuttall which has a 3,000 strong workforce and 27 offices in the UK. “Our DR site, where we replicate all the corporate data and systems from our Camberley head office, is getting a 1GB link to improve performance in the light of rapid data growth.”

 

“Having on site connectivity is crucial to our business,” explained Shepherd. “Staff need access to email and corporate systems for up-to-date project information such as site drawings and supplier quotes, as well as getting into our Intranet and project archives. They also need our online collaboration software so they can work closely with other contractors on site.”

 

All of BAM Nuttall’s WAN connections are routed through a CI-Net data centre, allowing the company to provide round-the-clock monitoring for availability, as well as tracking security and providing content filtering.“CI-Net has the task of pinpointing and resolving any connection problems on the WAN. They provide frontline support, so if there is an issue at any of our locations people know to go directly to them,” said Shepherd. StoneGate firewall appliances, which are currently being installed at most key locations, are configured to load balance network traffic across multiple links and provide the automatic failover facility for business continuity.

 

“We try to ensure a degree of resilience by putting in more than one link at important sites,” explained Shepherd. At remote or brownfield sites where the local telecoms infrastructure is not geared up to providing a land connection, CI-Net delivers connectivity using the RedKite WiMAX ready wireless service. A wireless mast up to 5 miles away can beam a signal to rooftop antennae on the portable cabins on the site. Where required the construction communications specialist delivers immediate connectivity at new sites using a 3G wireless hub," explained Shepherd.

 

“It means our staff have some initial Internet access from ‘day one’ in cases where we have to wait for a wired connection to go live,” said Shepherd. “It’s a perfect example of why it makes sense to go with a specialist comms provider such as CI-Net that already understands the challenges and pressures involved in delivering connectivity to construction and civil engineering environments.” For us the number of sites involved, means that managing our WAN requirements is a big challenge and if we had to do it in-house, we’d have to invest in a much bigger IT team with specialist connectivity skills.”