// SCALING UP //
“
THE COMPANY HAS NOW MIGRATED
SAFELY , WITHOUT
DISTURBING CUSTOMER DATA AND MITIGATED THE HUGE COST OF THE NEW KIT
FAILING ONCE PURCHASED .
James Godbold , CIO at Loans2Go environment . This included solution design and testing . One of the key points that emerged from this was the identification of a server bottleneck on the new infrastructure , which , had it gone unnoticed would have had severe consequences for the business .
“ The Node4 team reported a problem to Loans2Go following its testing – it turned out the new kit was performing far worse than the old kit , which was ten years old ,” said Godbold . “ They told us not to migrate until we fixed the bottleneck , and once we checked it out further with the help of Node4 , we discovered that the kit that had been supplied to us couldn ’ t handle the IOPs required by the SQL Server databases needed to operate effectively .”
Subsequently , Loans2Go was able to procure suitable hardware with the support and advice of Node4 and finally migrated after a crucial Node4 sign-off . The company has now migrated safely , without disturbing customer data and mitigated the huge cost of the new kit failing once purchased .
The results
The benefits of working with Node4 reach beyond the technical , as Loans2Go is able to rely on the Node4 team as an extension of its own with a common shared goal . This has created a positive environment for futureproofing IT operations .
“ What has stood out about Node4 the most is that we were looking for a company that gave more of a personal touch ,” said Godbold . “ While other companies may have just stuck some monitoring on servers and automated high-level alerts , with Node4 , it will proactively investigate issues and raise up personally .
“ As a lean IT team , it ’ s great being able to bounce ideas off other skilled professionals and have them feel like an extension of our team because they truly care . The last thing any IT team wants to do is have their line of engagement through a faceless call centre and have to speak with someone who is reading off scripts and constantly escalating to someone who knows more .”
Another benefit of working with Node4 is that Loans2Go can reap flexibility . “ Larger suppliers mean work becomes siloed . With Node4 , we get flexibility and great communication ,” Godbold explained . “ Our data centre migration has been bumped three or four times due to priorities shifting and the infrastructure issues , and Node4 has been very accommodating with that . The team understands the complications with projects and have gone above and beyond what they are actually committed to do to help us reach a shared goal .
“ The way we onboard customers is through an auction panel and response time is critical to this . Without quick responses , we lose custom . It is that simple . The old environment was seeing performance degradation , and because of this , we were not responding to the bids within the 30-second time frame . The speed of our infrastructure is vital ; otherwise , we miss out on huge amounts of opportunity . We are now completing the process in sub five seconds , whereas before we had huge fluctuations between 10 and 40 seconds . With Node4 testing the new environment and finding the flaws , we ’ ve also averted moving to kit that wouldn ’ t have been able to respond quick enough either .
“ Loans2Go has changed significantly from a high street lender to almost exclusively online , and as such , it is battling against companies that have initiated themselves as a FinTech company . The transition is always harder than building something from scratch , but having good partners makes a huge difference . Knowing we have the right expertise to move this forward is something we value deeply .” �
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