Leica’s SmartNet team turned to iland enterprise cloud hosting to enable a new SaaS business model, 24×7 availability and rapid growth
HOUSTON – January 27, 2016 – Smart agriculture, forensic and construction industries increasingly require high-precision GPS intelligence to enable new safety, automation and analytics capabilities. When Leica Geosystems developed its SmartNet GPS reference network to deliver this critical data, the company turned to iland’s enterprise cloud to host the service. By leveraging iland’s cloud in the United States and United Kingdom, Leica has been able to efficiently launch a new cloud-based subscription business model, ensure 24×7 availability and rapidly scale.
Leica Geosystems is a global 200-year-old supplier of products and systems for capturing, modeling, and mapping spatial information. Unlike its predominantly physical products, Leica needed to launch SmartNet as a subscription-based correction service using a Software-as-a-Service business model. However, the team did not have the internal technical infrastructure nor the human resources to support a mission-critical service.
“Our customers must be able to access SmartNet to get precise GPS measurements so they can operate and innovate 24×7, 365 days a year,” said Wendy Watson, director of station reference operations at Leica Geosystems. “In construction, SmartNet is used to detect and monitor movement of dams, bridges and buildings to improve safety. In a forensic investigation, it’s used to map out crime or accident scenes. In smart agriculture, SmartNet helps guide tractors when conditions are right – day or night. Downtime is not an option, and the data must be processed in real time. That is why we chose iland’s proven enterprise cloud to host SmartNet.”
“Once we realized that we couldn’t run a 24×7 service in a 9-to-5 facility, we started looking for a service provider partner,” says Tyler Collier, product manager for SmartNet North America. “When we looked at iland, they had the mix of technologies, support resources and the VMware platform expertise that would allow us the flexibility and the scalability we needed. iland allows us to focus on what we’re good at, and that’s delivering GPS corrections.”
Going far beyond the offerings of most cloud providers, iland Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) features a management console that enables Leica to easily ramp up cloud environments, predict costs, manage resources, maximize performance and address compliance. It provides real-time and historical visibility into the performance of each virtual machine, vApp and virtual data center (VDC) in a customer’s environment. Capacity and utilization metrics as well as customizable alerts make it easy to identify and remedy potential issues, and backup/restore features help users protect against corruption or accidental deletion. The console also integrates disaster recovery functionality that enables customers to test, failover and failback with near-zero recovery times.
“The console gives visibility that we didn’t have previously,” said Collier. “We can see resource allocation, workload distribution, even cost projections, all at a glance.”
The number of stations and size of the SmartNet network has increased 300 percent since launch. iland ECS has delivered friction-free scalability to support rising traffic volumes without bottlenecks or increased latency.
“From the beginning, iland’s support has been incredible,” said Wendy Watson, director of reference station operations. “The response time and quality of support is beyond any of our expectations. For anyone looking to leverage cloud, make sure you find a partner that will work with you to understand your challenges and that will give you the attention to get you where you want to be. It’s what iland is to us.”
“Leica Geosystems’ SmartNet offering exemplifies the innovative, agile applications that cloud makes possible, and we are proud to team with them to provide the technology and support they need to deliver superior services to their end users around the globe,” said Dante Orsini, senior vice president of business development at iland.
For more information about iland’s cloud hosting and disaster recovery services, go to:
- iland Enterprise Cloud Services
- iland Disaster Recovery as a Service
- On-demand customer testimonials and webinars
- Leica Geosystems case study and video
About iland
With data centers in the U.S., U.K. and Singapore, iland delivers the only enterprise cloud solutions in the market today with true innovation, transparency, intelligent management and advanced security built in. iland’s technology and consultative approach mean anyone–regardless of expertise, location or business objective–can experience the benefits of a hassle-free cloud. From scaling production workloads, to supporting testing and development, to disaster recovery, iland’s secure cloud and decades of experience translate into unmatched service. Underscoring the strength of its platform, the company has been recognized as VMware’s Service Provider Partner of the Year, Global and Americas; is part of the Cisco Cloud Managed Service Provider Program for IaaS and DRaaS; and partners with other industry leaders including Zerto and Veeam. Visit iland.com.
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