Haven Power speeds up response times and saves capital with AWS
Ipswich-based Haven Power are an energy company specifically focused on serving the needs of small- to medium-sized businesses that would prefer not to use a large multinational supplier. Haven has seen rapid growth since it was launched in 2006, spearheaded by an intense focus on customer service.
Initially, Haven used a hybrid infrastructure comprised of onsite and offsite servers. This system, however, was not as flexible as Haven required and offered limited technology testing and development support. Haven lacked both business continuity and a disaster recovery (DR) plan and sought an infrastructure that could meet demand and drive further growth.
After assessing several options, Haven was advised by Amazon Web Services (AWS) partner Smart421 to use AWS for its business continuity and DR plan. According to Haven’s Business Systems Manager Paul Armstrong, the company wanted “to leverage AWS durable and secure global infrastructure for a comprehensive disaster recovery environment.”
A replica infrastructure was built on the AWS cloud. The replica system gave the company confidence that its data would remain safe in the event of a disaster. From there, Haven successfully migrated its billing system to AWS, building the system using AWS CloudFormation and setting up the network with AWS DirectConnect.
Moving the billing system has seen Haven’s performance improve 5-6x, with average response time going from 500 milliseconds to 80 milliseconds with AWS. Haven has also seen upfront cost savings of £250,000, at least, by opting for AWS instead of an expensive, hardware-based infrastructure.
Regarding how AWS was helping Haven look to future growth, Armstrong said: “We need to continue to grow without adding hardware for new systems. AWS lets us do that, and helps give us better management of the platform too. We are very happy with the flexibility, agility and cost benefits that AWS offers. AWS lets us pay for only what we use and reduces maintenance overheads.”
