4D and Getmapping: Relying on a data centre they can trust

About Getmapping

Getmapping provides aerial photography and digital mapping across Europe and Africa. They were the first to provide up-to date nationwide aerial coverage of Britain.

We caught up with Gavin Sullivan, Deputy Head of Europe at Getmapping, to hear his first-hand experiences of working with 4D.

Why does a business like yours require colocation?

Our photos are updated annually so multi-year national coverage of aerial data presents a huge challenge for storage and serving customers in a speedy fashion. Things like securing and manning a building 24/7 would be too much hassle for us - we need a reliable, resilient facility to host our eCommerce and web services, and our government clients also require the management and security offered by a professional data centre like 4D.

Why did you decide to move your servers into 4D?

We had a few issues with our previous data centre supplier. These included cost, a slow response rate and inflexibility around power requirements. Moreover, the time lost in commuting to the data centre was killing the productivity of our team.

After meeting with 4D, we found them to be friendlier with a more personal approach than other providers. When we initially explained the pains we were experiencing, 4D’s directors listened and showed a clear understanding about what we needed. It made Getmapping feel like they genuinely cared about providing us with a good solution.

What advice would you give to other businesses looking for a colocation provider?

1. Work out your budget
2. Define your expectations
3. Look at the number of line providers
4. Do your research
5. Visit the data centres
6. Discuss the migration process
7. Be clear about the levels of support required

What was the migration experience like?

The migration was flawless. Leading up to the migration, there was a choice to either ensure no downtime in the move or to increase redundancy. At the time, TomTom was a big customer and they could not afford to have any disruption to services, so we went through a process of virtualising the SANs.

Tell us about a client project that 4D has helped you to secure

Getmapping won a contract to supply aerial imagery to the Scottish Government. We must meet speed, quality and service level requirements (e.g. uptime). This is a high profile, important contract where our aerial imagery is relied upon by a number of regular, as well as part time, users of the data within Scotland, so top quality reliable data centre services are crucial to the company’s reputation.