DAA awards €1m hosting contract to Data Electronics

18 Mar 2011

Dublin Airport Authority, which is in the process of a €400,000 virtualisation investment, has awarded a contract worth more than €1m to Irish data centre firm Data Electronics to support the airport’s online business platform.

Data Electronics will develop, support and host a fully PCI-compliant online IT environment for the DAA, including disaster recovery and data storage. The contract was awarded following a highly competitive public sector tendering process.

Under the terms of the three-year contract, Data Electronics will deliver 24/7 proactive monitoring and management of DAA’s virtualised online IT environment.

The DAA has a sizeable and high-profile web presence; with all three Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airport websites providing important flight information, along with the facility to pre-book a car park space online.

A recent addition to DAA’s website portfolio is The Loop, an online airport shopping website, where travellers can buy best-selling products online and collect them before flying.

With this new shopping website attracting high visitor numbers since its launch in August 2010, combined with thousands of visitors to the three major airport websites, access to resilient bandwidth is imperative.

Accessing Data Electronics’ high availability and secure bandwidth ensures that all DAA websites have sufficient capacity to accommodate even the highest spike in online traffic without impacting service.

“We are delighted to be working in conjunction with Data Electronics,” said group head of IT and shared services at DAA, Gerry Luttrell. “After a highly competitive tender process, we chose Data Electronics, as they offered an unrivalled service. We are committed to providing our customers with the highest level of service at all times, and are confident that Data Electronics can help us reach and exceed our customers’ expectations.”

Stringent data security standards

Outsourcing this project to Data Electronics has also ensured that DAA’s IT online transaction processing systems will fully comply with stringent payment card industry (PCI) data security standards, which is a protocol set up by the major credit card companies to help protect against security threats when payment cards are processed.

All connectivity is further reinforced by Data Electronics’ managed network security, which protects DAA’s online IT environment from unauthorised intrusion, threats and attacks. All services are guaranteed under a single service level agreement (SLA)-backed delivery model.

Data Electronics operates two data centres in Dublin, providing DAA with disaster recovery capabilities for complete data security. 

The two data centres are linked through diverse dark fibre, enabling each site to be mirrored and accessed remotely, while still remaining independent and physically detached.

“This is a significant contract win for Data Electronics, showcasing our strong capabilities within the managed IT services arena,” said Maurice Mortell, CEO of Data Electronics.

“Our team of highly qualified technical engineers work 24/7 across our two state-of-the-art data centres to provide the highest level of IT service to valued clients like DAA.

“DAA is key to ensuring that Ireland remains accessible to global markets, an element which is vital to our country’s economic success, and we are delighted that our services will assist with this.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com