Drax Power Station

Vaioni-Quote-Icon We need to be able to trust that our connectivity solution will be up and running all the time, and Vaioni has delivered.

Customer Story

Drax Power Station Logo

Powering the nation with better connectivity

Drax Power Station has long been a crucial part of the UK’s energy infrastructure, and is now critical to the country’s sustainable future. The site, near Selby in North Yorkshire, is home to the largest decarbonisation project in Europe, and provides the most renewable power of any single location in the UK. It produces enough sustainable electricity to power four million homes.

The Challenge

Drax helps keep the UK going. Power from the site plays a significant role in meeting the country’s energy needs.

That means it’s essential that the Selby head office and two connected sites have robust, reliable connectivity. Efficient power generation requires accurate information and regular communication. The Drax management team needs continually updated data on the site’s performance, supply chain and operations.

Increasingly, its IT team feared the network it had in place was not fit for purpose. The solution – from a big name provider – was expensive and unreliable. It was risking the smooth day-to-day operation of the organisation.

The Vaioni Solution

Drax needed internet connectivity that was fast, secure and cost effective, and at the same time gave the peace of mind that comes with 100% guaranteed uptime.

That’s exactly what Vaioni delivered. In technical terms, Vaioni re-built the company’s wide area network (WAN) from the ground up, based on an RAO2 Diverse Plus Split solution, delivering separate duct, fibres, exchange and core Points of Presence (PoPs).

In layman’s terms, Vaioni effectively gave Drax two separate connections, with two entry and exit points (a mile apart), two cabling routes and two different exchanges. All this was built back to the powerful Vaioni Juniper core network which was again split between Vaioni’s London and Manchester PoPs, for added reliability, speed and security.

Other providers could lay the cables and deploy the network switches, but Drax needed ultimate reliability and chose Vaioni partly because of our own record of resilience. Vaioni operate a core network that has suffered zero downtime in recent years. Drax knew its connectivity was in safe hands.

The Results

Vaioni’s highly scalable, MPLS-based WAN has given Drax the reliable connectivity it needs, and the flexibility to easily add sites to the network as and when required.

It allows for the fast and secure exchange of critical information, and smooth and seamless back office functions. As the business transitions to more complex technology in future, it knows it has a network that will continue to offer fast, secure and reliable connectivity.

And what’s more, it has gained all this for less. Vaioni’s solution is more cost-effective than the network it replaced, and is more professionally supported. Drax has been particularly appreciative of Vaioni’s award-winning service teams. Vaioni’s experts – from account management through to technical support – are on hand whenever Drax needs help or advice. The Drax IT team says its customer experience has been hugely improved by the switch to Vaioni.

Ultimately, Drax now has a network that can support it as it continues to power the nation and move towards a zero carbon energy future. Its day-to-day operations are no longer at risk. Vaioni has delivered an advanced networking solution alongside complete peace of mind.

We need to be able to trust that our connectivity solution will be up and running all the time, and Vaioni has delivered that with an advanced, separated network. But it’s gone further, with a very competitive price and customer support that is head and shoulders above what we’d been used to from our last provider. I would highly recommend Vaioni.

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