Putting the Groundwork in Pays off for JacTravel

xTEN helped JacTravel to achieve a 60% reduction in infrastructure requirements.

The Challenge

Project Overview

JacTravel were growing but they needed their systems to keep up. They enlisted xTEN’s support for an infrastructure migration to support their vision for faster systems that scaled efficiently and were cost-effective.
The initial plan was an infrastructure migration, but our Database Review identified some key changes that if made prior to the migration, could remove potential hurdles.
The migration was successful and JacTravel kept the existing infrastructure which meant no spike in hardware costs.
Putting in the groundwork allowed JacTravel to reduce infrastructure requirements by 60% and with an improved search capability, JacTravel also saw a 1000% increase in performance.

The Customer

JacTravel

Established in 1975, JacTravel has over 45 years of destination management expertise. They’re one of the leading Destination Management Companies in Europe and provide travel products and services to the international travel trade.

The Company Was Growing but Their Systems Couldn’t Keep Up

The company were experiencing exponential growth, but their infrastructure couldn’t keep up with the increased rate of queries. JacTravel’s solution was to migrate their servers, giving them scalability and agility to support their business growth. Our objective was to support them in a successful migration.

Putting in the Groundwork

JacTravel’s pace of success was outgrowing their infrastructure. Searches needed to be quicker and their overall performance needed to be at a standard to power their aggressive progression in the market. JacTravel’s plan: move to brand new hardware to increase capacity.

A closer inspection into JacTravel’s systems identified that a planned infrastructure migration may not result in a solution that met all their goals. We recommended a complete database review.

Our strategy sought to satisfy the immediate business needs, whilst at the same time reducing the pressure on the infrastructure teams. We worked closely with the JacTravel team to give them the time and energy they needed to more focus on what was a major migration.

Using our extensive SQL Server experience, we established a rock-solid service with the existing infrastructure and after eliminating some of the big issues, we moved on to tackle some of the more complicated but high-gain concerns. These improvements yielded a 60% reduction in infrastructure requirements, putting JacTravel in a great position for a successful migration.

Hard Work Pays off With a Seamless Migration

JacTravel carried out a seamless migration without increasing hardware spend and the company is now able to facilitate 1000% more searches, allowing for unimpeded sector growth.

Their estate is free of any legacy issues. With fewer moving parts, the infrastructure is far more manageable for the internal team, giving them the time they need to support business growth.

When your business is growing and you’re seeking innovation, a full infrastructure migration may seem like the silver bullet you’ve been looking for. But to get the most from your migration, it pays to put in the groundwork beforehand. Bringing your legacy issues along for the ride simply creates more inefficiencies in the future meaning, among other issues, scaling infrastructure costs. With the help of the JacTravel team, we removed bottlenecks and streamlined their whole operation prior to migration and kept infrastructure costs to a minimum. The database review made for a seamless migration which will serve to future-proof the company’s growth for years to come.

Phil Grayson
MD at xTEN