4D and Richard Allitt Associates

Founded in the mid-nineties, family-based engineering firm, Richard Allitt Associates, has seen the urban drainage industry evolve dramatically over the last two decades. Not only does flooding seem more prevalent but also the tools and techniques at their disposal have changed dramatically.

“We now save so much time carrying out back-ups and no longer have to rely on our Internet connection back at the office in this process . We now have complete peace of mind that our data is locked up and secure.”

About Richard Allitt Associates

RAA was established in 1996 to deliver innovative solutions for the complex needs of customers of the urban drainage industry. As Consulting Engineers, the business maintains a traditional family based approach to business, putting client needs first and resolving flooding problems in the urban environment using the latest hydraulic modelling and analytical techniques.

The Challenge

“As civil engineers and flood risk management consultants we work with major water companies, such as Severn Trent Water, Wessex Water and Irish Water. Much of our work involves hydraulic modelling of sewer networks and simulations of where flooding may occur,” explained Martin Allitt, Director at Richard Allitt Associates. “This information means that we can give our customers the early warnings needed on where floods may occur and where they need to invest and upgrade networks.”

The team use a variety of sophisticated tools and skills such as hydraulic modelling and drones to draw up assessments and forecasts. “As you can imagine the assessments and analysis we do creates a lot of data and until early last year that information resided on-premise at our office, “ added Allitt.

“We were looking into our options for a more secure way to back up when we came across 4D. Their colocation offer was attractive and apart from addressing our main concern, optimal security for our data, we have also been able to make significant energy savings as our simulation machines are constantly running. All that cooling and energy use was adding up. Infact since we moved our racks over to Gatwick we now have to turn the heating on at the office!”