The international oil and gas supplier Amerada Hess is piloting a
managed virtual private network project that is expected to reduce
the cost of deploying IT applications by 40%.
Fifty users in the UK are currently piloting the Aventail managed
extranet service that uses encrypted Internet traffic to deliver
applications to partners, contractors and employees.
In the past, when Amerada Hess employees needed remote access to
their specialist software applications, the company either had to
install PCs on remote sites or set up dedicated leased lines
between remote users and the Amerada Hess data centre.
Gordon McCaw, project manager at Amerada Hess, told CW360: "The old
method proved costly and required a lengthy lead time to install,
and our IT department found it difficult to support distant users.
This new system won't solve that problem completely, but it does
help."
Amerada Hess is involved with the exploration and distribution of
natural oil and gas at over a dozen sites across the world. McCaw
said that with the new system, the IT department could grant users
access to the application suite in less than a day, compared to a
wait of up to a month with the old method.
McCaw added: "We were primarily looking for a method of giving
access to partners or contractors, but if the pilot is successful
we may look at switching some of our other infrastructure onto the
Aventail extranet."
The Aventail extranet is the first managed IT service that Amerada
Hess has deployed. McCaw believes that the system has so far been a
success, with only half a day of planned downtime in its first four
months.
If the trials are successful, the system will be rolled out to up
to 500 partners and contractors across Europe, Asia and the
US.
The deal is a major win for Aventail, which has similar managed
extranets with Kodak, Boeing, IBM and Dupont.