Fordway - Data infrastructure specialists

Fordway acclaimed as one of channel's champions at Comms National Awards 2009

On Thursday 1st October the ICT channel's most coveted and celebrated awards event was held at the Hilton on Park Lane, London.  Bringing together over 350 of the industry's elite, the Comms National Awards acknowledged the very best in the industry and combined a perfect mixture of celebration, entertainment and charity fundraising.

This year Fordway won the Green Solution of the Year  Award for their work at the London Borough of Hillingdon.  This is one of many awards won for this project, highlighting the impressive results it has delivered. Other awards include:

    ·         Green Organisation of the Year - BCS IT industry Award 2008
    ·         Network Project of the Year - NETWORK Computing Awards 2009
    ·         Solution provider/systems integrator & solutions VAR 
                                                        - IT Europa Green IT Awards 2008

This is Fordway’s second success at the CN Awards; in 2008 the company won the Data Management Solution of the Year category for the work they carried out at GM2 Logistics.

Fordway worked with Hillingdon’s IT team to install a Compellent storage area network (SAN) and VMware platform to virtualise the company’s storage and server environment.  The Borough wanted an effective and greener way to handle its rapidly growing data storage requirements.  It needed a solution that would provide effective data prioritisation and management and drive down costs, while also providing increased resilience and reducing power consumption. 

The new (SAN) solution combined with a virtual server environment has provided substantial cost savings, improved data prioritisation and an effective business continuity solution.  It also provides disaster recovery for the Borough, which has been extended to provide disaster recovery for the local health authority, Hillingdon Primary Care Trust, and will enable the Borough to recover its operating costs in the not-for-profit agreement with the Trust.

Richard Blanford, managing director of Fordway, comments:  "We are delighted to accept this prestigious award, and share the joy of winning with The London Borough of Hillingdon’s IT team.  It recognises their hard work and commitment in delivering an IT strategy that reduces both their costs and their carbon footprint. 

“A green IT strategy does not have to be expensive, but can and should be the result of optimising a company’s IT infrastructure.  Every IT team should be able to convince their directors that it is worth ‘going green’ by showing the cost savings and business benefits that will be achieved.”

This project was recognised because the new storage solution provided both annual financial savings of almost £80,000 – helping the Borough deliver improved value for money to residents - and a massive reduction in carbon emissions.  As a public sector organisation, Hillingdon is committed to driving sustainable, more environmentally friendly practices, and this green IT initiative enabled the Borough to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 per cent over 18 months.  It has also met the Borough’s other business objectives: handling rapidly growing data volumes, improving efficiency by providing improved data prioritisation and delivering an effective business continuity solution. 

“As a local government organisation, we are fairly prudent with the money we spend, and this solution represents great value for money,” said Roger Bearpark, Assistant Head of ICT, London Borough of Hillingdon.