Case study AudienceView Ticketing UK Ltd

BT iNets IT infrastructure solution gives AudienceView a base for European expansion and improved customer service
BT iNets professional, streamlined organisation proved to be a very reliable partner for this project
Gopi Balasingam, AudienceView Ticketing UK

Theres nothing more frustrating to an avid fan than missing out on event tickets because of a slow booking website or an error at the online checkout just as they are about to make that vital purchase
So, to avoid these problems, Canadian ticketing company, AudienceView, decided it needed a UK base on which to deploy a storage, network, compute and virtualisation platform. This local approach was essential to reduce transaction delays and latency on online ticket sales and keep customers happy when buying from AudienceView customers such as the Birmingham NEC, Sheffield Arena and London West End theatres. Also important to AudienceView was a partner who truly understood Cisco UCS technology and EMCs storage solutions, both of which it already used in Canada and the USA.

Expert installation
BT iNets position as a leading Cisco partner, underpinned by a proven track record of successful deployments, were crucial factors in AudienceViews decision to award the contract. Explains Gopi Balasingam, Vice President of Professional Services for AudienceView Ticketing: With no technical personnel of our own in Europe, having access to BT iNet experts to pre-configure and install the equipment was ideal. We also benefited from purchasing everything through one systems integrator, avoiding the technology integration problems wed suffered in the US by specifying a converged infrastructure that would underpin everything we do.

Case study AudienceView Ticketing UK Ltd

Our reasons for choosing BT iNet were borne out, as the team used its technical expertise and project management skills to painlessly deliver on time.
Gopi Balasingam, AudienceView Ticketing UK

Increasing numbers of venues have embraced online ticket sales, leading to a strong North American customer base for AudienceView. However, the company wanted to progress through fast expansion into the UK and Europe and needed a local platform to service the clients with any delay in provisioning potentially resulting in a loss of revenue. Says Gopi: From an operational and compliance perspective, running a platform in the local territory is essential. We had taken data centre space with BT, so wanted to deploy the solution in dual sites at Newport and Cardiff. We were impressed by BTs extensive agreements with all the major and minor ISPs, minimising transaction delays.

a Cisco Nexus Unified Computing System platform. All of the equipment is supported by BT iNet offering a single point of contact. The aim is to ultimately introduce more storage at another disaster recovery site in future for synchronous data replication.

Complete service wrap

As a company that relies on its network, we were reassured by the reliability and scalability offered by BT iNet, comments Gopi. BTs links to other network providers ensure a better performance than other suppliers - but what sold it for us, was BT iNets complete service wrap. From data centre hosting, to its preferred partner status on all the key equipment, through to its supply, support and installation, the BT iNet offering was extremely compelling. He concludes: Our reasons for choosing BT iNet were borne out, as the team used its technical expertise and project management skills to painlessly deliver on time. Working with BT iNet as a single procurement source ensured we benefitted from their global relationships with key suppliers, which overcame all supply chain difficulties in the wake of events such as the Japanese earthquake. BT iNets professional, streamlined organisation proved to be a very reliable partner for this project.

Fast response to demand

Network latency with ISPs was another major consideration, as the service needs to respond to spikes in demand for ticket sales. With clients using different ISPs, BTs core divergent paths ensure smooth and speedy transactions. In addition, Local Traffic Managers have been deployed to manage the surges in large quantities of traffic that will coincide with popular event tickets going on sale. This load balancing is supplied by F5 and, together with storage from EMC, runs on

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