WE WANTED TO PUT EFFECTIVE WORKSTATIONS IN FRONT OF EVERY ENGINEER AND ALLOW THEM TO WORK WITH BETTER RESPONSIVENESS AND PERFORMANCE .
INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Software for Business
The Keystone Group increases productivity and saves budget with Peer Software ’ s PeerGFS
The Keystone Group , the UK ’ s largest steel lintel manufacturer and Europe ’ s fastest growing roof window manufacturer , has reduced costs , increased efficiency and secured its data with Peer Software ’ s distributed file system solution , PeerGFS .
Since implementation in 2018 , the Keystone Group has benefited from :
• Increased productivity : opening up colleague collaboration with real-time file synchronisation across remote sites
• Flexibility : to easily decommission legacy infrastructure without losing data
• Continuous availability : protecting users against downtime and ensuring users remain connected to documents , data files and business applications
With headquarters in Cookstown , Northern Ireland , The Keystone Group has over 1,000 employees operating across four locations .
WE WANTED TO PUT EFFECTIVE WORKSTATIONS IN FRONT OF EVERY ENGINEER AND ALLOW THEM TO WORK WITH BETTER RESPONSIVENESS AND PERFORMANCE .
The manufacturing company heavily relies on its wide area network to enable seamless access to critical services for its distributed workforce . The decision to adopt PeerGFS was driven by the need to upgrade the outdated virtual desktop infrastructure ( VDI ) for the engineers .
Ryan Hawkes , IT Infrastructure Manager at The Keystone Group , explains : “ We wanted to put effective workstations in front of every engineer and allow them to work with better responsiveness and performance . The challenge was to access user files that were stored in Cookstown , which hampered our productivity .”
To address this challenge , The Keystone Group decided to implement PeerGFS to provide local file access of global data to engineers in remote sites such as Swadlincote and Cwmbran . The ability to efficiently replicate data and prevent version conflicts through integrated file locking across mirrored sites became a key selling point for PeerGFS , as it ensured seamless collaboration among users working on the same projects , simultaneously .
The deployment of PeerGFS not only improved productivity but also delivered substantial cost savings for The Keystone Group . The company was able to retire its Citrix desktop infrastructure , saving budget on licensing and infrastructure support . Additionally , PeerGFS facilitated high availability and disaster recovery , minimising downtime and reducing the risk of data loss for the entire workforce .
Hawkes added : “ It has enabled us to have a business that can work from a very remote site in the Philippines . We were able to deploy our remote file server there and use Peer Software to synchronise the data , allowing our team to work effectively anywhere .”
The Keystone Group now benefits from improved collaboration across teams , smoother operations and enhanced data synchronisation .
By implementing PeerGFS , The Keystone Group has not only saved valuable time but also optimised budget allocation . The company ’ s IT infrastructure has been streamlined and users now enjoy faster access to critical files and documents . p
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