West Ham United

Date: December 2021

A cast iron platform supporting millions of fans, worldwide

“The biggest impact of Skye Cloud has been to create a more secure and stable infrastructure within the company”
MO ALI - IT DIRECTOR WEST HAM UNITED
As well as a leading Premiership Club, West Ham United Football Club (WHUFC) are a global business with millions of fans around the world demanding always-on access to, live content, online merchandise and ticketing 24/7. Furthermore, a 21st century football club demands the latest technology to ensure the team’s performance is at an optimum level, tracking player analytics and telemetry data. 

Since June 2020 Skye Cloud’s partnership as West Ham United’s Official Virtual and Private Network provider has not only grown their technological capability but has consistently delivered a more stable and secure infrastructure. 

Our approach
Following the breakdown of the relationship with the previous partner, Skye Cloud came in and needed to hit the ground running.

Skye Cloud not only took over management of the current vendors but provided access to their trusted network of partners in order to quickly improve performance in the overall hyper-converged infrastructure and in specific areas such as cyber security which was an increasing issue for WHUFC as they become increasingly successful on and off the pitch. 

As the partnership has developed. WHUFC have entrusted and assigned a host of different projects with the renewed confidence of a timely delivery and reductions in downtime.
“Skye Cloud has enabled WHUFC to develop new and exciting partnerships with other innovative vendors. Since the appointment, the working relationship between WHUFC and its vendors has greatly improved”
MO ALI - IT DIRECTOR WEST HAM UNITED

Today, Skye Cloud provide WHUFC with a whole host of services such as:
• Provision of their Hyper-converged Infrastructure Platform in partnership with Nutanix.

• Provision of a fully managed Cyber Security Platform, which includes an outsourced SOC, in partnership with CrowdStrike.

• Provision of Email Security that utilises Mimecast.

• Hosting the club’s main corporate website which includes the integration of other third parties for merchandise and ticketing. This also includes the provision of complex load balancing and content delivery networks to ensure the best performance and experience for WHUFC’s global following.

• Providing CCTV systems at the WHUFC training ground.

• Procuring standard hardware and software.

 

Along with partnering on commercial business activities. Skye Cloud also actively partner with the West Ham Foundation to tackle digital poverty. This involves refurbishing donated laptops and devices which are then redistributed to schools and students in East London.

The results

Partnering with Skye-Cloud has enabled WHUFC to become more secure and has led to a more stable digital environment within the company overall. 


The corporate website now has greater stability by eliminating unexpected downtime, together with better accessibility and improved overall functionality via the introduction of the latest technology into the user journeys. 


The CrowdStrike and Mimecast deployments within the cyber security platform have had a significant impact on the protection against Cyber Security threats and vulnerabilities during a time when attacks are becoming increasingly complex and WHUFC’s exposure as a club is making them more of a target.


The replacement CCTV camera network now enables improvements within the team to be logged and monitored – a previous unresolved and ongoing issue.


And not forgetting the hyper-converged infrastructure which has improved the overall performance of internal systems and the delivery of applications across the board.


“All the projects supported by Skye-Cloud have been completed on time and there is a significant reduction in downtime”
MO ALI - IT DIRECTOR WEST HAM UNITED

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