ANS gives hotel chain a cloud leg-up

VAR wins seven-figure deal to move De Vere group's corporate IT infrastructure into the cloud

VAR ANS has won a multimillion-pound deal to move the back-end IT system of luxury hotel chain De Vere Group into the cloud.

The deal, lasting three years, will see ANS deploy a private "flexpod-in-the-cloud" solution to manage and boost its IT capacity.

It is believed the hotel chain is the first independent hotel group to move its corporate IT infrastructure into the cloud. In the past De Vere has had 18 racks stored off-site with Telecity in Manchester.

The new managed solution from ANS will slash that number to just three, with ANS providing 24/7 support. ANS is set to build a new Citrix farm to publish the application to users, and will be responsible for the complete migration of the current infrastructure onto the new platform, while causing no disruption in service.

Paul Sweeney, managing director of ANS Group, said: “This is a strategic move by De Vere Group which demonstrates its long-term thinking. It makes good sense to enlist trusted local partners to free up time and resources, allowing De Vere to do what it does best – providing great hospitality.”

Jo Stanford, group IT director of De Vere Group, said: “We were very impressed with the demonstration of deep understanding of our business, and of the challenges faced generally in the hospitality sector shown by ANS Group.

“The key strategic drive for this project and core to this partnership for us is ensuring that we are providing a first-class infrastructure that will allow us to continue to provide excellent service to our customers, especially during the transitional period. However, a significant side benefit will be substantial savings in hosting costs.”

She added: “ANS Group won the deal because it was the right proposal, the right people and the right price – in that order.”

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.