Automobile giant Renault deploys Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Rackspace Managed Hosting for a more dependable on-line customer interface.

FAST FACTS

Industry: Automotive Manufacturing

Challenge: To reconfigure and consolidate Renault’s UK micro-site hosting requirements

Solution: Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Web Hosting Implementation: Rackspace

Benefits: Consolidated all UK micro-sites on a single platform. Reduced on-going costs. Guaranteed improved customer experience. Enhanced scalability, and increased control.

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French automobile manufacturer Renault is the most popular vehicle brand in Europe and is among the top three in the United Kingdom. Offering distinctive, clever design and value for money, its vehicles are considered among the safest in the world. Renault relies on websites strategically tailored for each market as a primary information source for customers. The reconfiguration of the company’s UK micro sites to a managed web hosting solution running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux maximizes commercial gain by ensuring the consistent availability of online information for existing and future customers.

The challenge: Increased server security

“We realized that we were in fact running a serious risk of losing control of our web-based operations if we failed to reconfigure outdated server technology that did not offer us the security, stability, or future-proofing we required to back-up this mission-critical online interface.” – Ian Collins, Operations Manager, Renault UK

While the Internet is becoming increasingly integral to corporate promotional strategies, a similar increase in technology investment to support those strategies is often lacking. This lack of investment and attention to web infrastructure has meant that many companies have found it hard to maintain the desired levels of control over their web-based activities or to ensure the continuous availability of online information to customers.

As the Internet became part of the car and van manufacturer’s front-line marketing strategy, Renault recognized the need to consolidate its individual UK micro sites to cut costs, use server space more economically, and manage the online presence more efficiently.

“Failure to evaluate the processes surrounding our operating systems and web hosting solutions could ultimately jeopardize the sustainability of our business,” said Ian Collins, Operations Manager, Renault UK. “Our traditional policy of allowing creative agencies to host individual micro sites became increasingly impractical and costly as our reliance on the Internet grew. We realized that we were in fact running a serious risk of losing control of our web-based operations if we failed to reconfigure outdated server technology that did not offer us the security, stability, or future-proofing we required to back-up this mission-critical online interface.”

The solution: Managed web hosting backed by Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rackspace has given us a true enterprise-class platform offering. Safe in the knowledge that our operating system and IT infrastructure have been optimised, we can now focus all our attention on our core business.

Based on a recommendation from one of its creative agencies, Renault chose a solution from Rackspace Managed Hosting based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Entrusting thousands of its customers’ web servers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Network, Rackspace Managed Hosting has been able to pass on the benefits of open source technology directly to Renault. Live in just weeks, the solution consolidated Renault’s complex web server configurations and simultaneously allowed full scalability and easy management of the IT infrastructure. Because of the 12-18 month testing and release cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Renault is confident that they have now created the most reliable, future-proofed environment possible for its web presence.

“Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rackspace has given us a true enterprise-class platform offering. Safe in the knowledge that our operating system and IT infrastructure have been optimised, we can now focus all our attention on our core business,” Collins said

In a complete transformation of the operating network, Red Hat’s open source technology provides Renault with a fail-safe mechanism to run its web operations, guaranteeing continual network availability of online information to customers.

Growth and support

“Besides the technical improvement to our operations, we also benefit from a bundled support system that gives us increased peace of mind above and beyond the enhancements within the IT infrastructure. Although the likelihood of problems with our web-based activity has been much reduced as a result of this solution, we know that professional, around-the-clock support is at hand should we require it.”

Renault’s fully integrated enterprise software solution is backed by world-class support. Being the first managed hosting provider to offer Red Hat Enterprise Linux and having one of the largest installed bases of Red Hat technology in the world, Rackspace is uniquely positioned to provide top-tier assistance, drawing expertise from its sizeable pool of talented Red Hat Certified Engineers.

“Besides the technical improvement to our operations, we also benefit from a bundled support system that gives us increased peace of mind above and beyond the enhancements within the IT infrastructure,” Collins sai. “Although the likelihood of problems with our web-based activity has been much reduced as a result of this solution, we know that professional, around-the-clock support is at hand should we require it.”

Rackspace relies on Red Hat Network to manage its Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers, ensuring that Renault can be kept up-to-date with the latest security patches and management tools and that the systems it depends on to stay current. The close relationship between Red Hat and Rackspace allows their joint offering to scale further than solutions offered by competitors, giving them the ability to meet Renault’s future business requirements.

Measure of success

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is designed to perform well in any mission-critical deployment, offering value through enhanced manageability of IT infrastructure, open source scalability, improved security, and a high level of dependability. Avoiding the on-going need to fix IT problems, Renault has:

• Reduced the ‘behind-the-scenes cost’ of their web presence
• Lowered long-term IT spend considerably
• Continued to improve the customer experience

The efficiency of Red Hat Enterprise Linux safeguards operations. It allows Renault to keep the cost of running its servers extremely low while keeping service availability extremely high. In turn, this frees up more IT budget for new services and products, helping the company build its customer base for the future.