DC Leisure

Overview

DC Leisure Management (DCL) specializes in the development and management of leisure facilities in partnership with local authorities throughout the UK, and currently operates 85 sites on their behalf. The company has around 6,500 employees.

DCL sites are connected to the company headquarters in Bagshot and data center in Newbury by a wide area network (WAN) using ADSL technology. New business applications and processes had increased data traffic, and the network was under intense pressure. “We were operating at the limits of the network’s capabilities and the cracks were beginning to show,” explains Phil White, head of IT at DCL.

A centralization program saw DCL moving from terminal services applications to browser-based applications that could be hosted in a private cloud. The first applications to be centralized were Xn Leisure Dimension, a membership product, and Microsoft Exchange with an Outlook Web application. DCL had also deployed NetApp SnapVault, a centralized back-up solution, to around 20 percent of its sites, with a planned roll-out to all sites. But the extra traffic across the network had badly affected application performance.

Solution

• 71 Riverbed Steelhead appliances
• Riverbed Steelhead Mobile
• Riverbed Central Management Console (CMC)

“We were operating at the limits of the network’s capabilities and the cracks were beginning to show.”

Phil White, Head of IT

DCL