Equinox Energy powers up branch application access with Citrix Branch Repeater

Equinox Energy is an end-to-end service provider to the oil and gas industry internationally. Its offerings include field development, engineering, offshore installation services, drilling, operations and maintenance. The company operates two offices in Perth, Australia and three in Singapore, and has staff distributed remotely worldwide.

The challenge: branch access to demanding applications running in the datacentre

Due to the nature of the oil and gas industry, when a new project arises, Equinox Energy needs to set up and staff a branch office as quickly as possible. At the same time, the company’s priority is to maintain centralised control over IT systems from its datacentre in the Perth office.

Lee McCaw, IT manager at Equinox Energy, said naval architects in branch offices were not always able to access essential 3D modeling applications over the WAN due to their high processing requirements.

Equinox also wanted to reduce its branch office hardware technology requirements in line with its “Green IT” policy.

Implementing Citrix Branch Repeater

The company trialled a number of solutions and found Citrix Branch Repeater™ with Windows Server® best at providing fast and reliable access to applications for all staff – whether in the head office or at branch sites. It also enabled Equinox to consolidate branch office networking technologies into a single appliance to reduce installation, maintenance and IT support requirements.

An influencing factor in Equinox ’s decision was the Citrix product’s consolidation of Windows Server 2003 core networking functions such as domain controller, domain name server (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), plus the incorporation of WAN optimisation and ISA server – all on the same appliance.

“We have been technology advisors to Equinox Energy and have seen them expand,” said Ian Leonard, CTO of Denver Technology, the Citrix Solution Advisor that helped deploy this solution at Equinox. “As they expanded, their IT requirements grew more complicated and dependent on the WAN. We needed a solution that was simple to use, had no impact on the existing network and allowed the customer to meet their IT goals of centralized data with a distributed workforce. We found that solution in Citrix Branch Repeater with Windows Server and Citrix Repeater.”

Each of the three Singapore offices is now running a Citrix Branch Repeater with Windows Server 200 appliance, while the West Perth branch office has installed the Citrix Branch Repeater with Windows Server 100 appliance. Citrix Repeater™ is installed at the datacentre in Perth.

Optimised access for all staff at significant cost savings

With a network of Citrix Branch Repeater appliances in place, McCaw says the company is already enjoying significant cost benefits. “We’re saving money on installation, maintenance and support costs for branch offices. Even the savings on data connection costs at each site are impressive. For example, we saved $50,000 in one location over just one year.

“Initially, we had planned to deploy two devices in each branch – a server and a WAN acceleration device.  However, when we learned about the capability of Citrix Branch Repeater with Windows Server as a single appliance that provided both these functions, we moved very quickly to implement it.  With the Citrix solution, we were able to reduce our upfront costs by more than 25 percent and at the same time reduce our total cost of ownership because the solution is energy efficient, requires minimum administration and takes up less space.”

The flexibility of the Branch Repeater solution and its ease of installation mean the company can quickly deploy staff to new projects and be confident they will have fast and reliable access to necessary tools. “Core IT services are run from the datacentre, and Branch Repeater has allowed us to keep control here while very efficiently providing access to people at branch sites,” McCaw noted.

The Citrix Branch Repeater solution not only enables access for remote site staff, but also accelerates and optimises network traffic between sites. Application loading times at all sites have significantly improved, providing a cost-effective and efficient way to “stretch our WAN across the globe while still maintaining control from our datacentre,” according to McCaw.

Importantly, the company has been able to deliver on its Green IT policy. “The power requirement for Branch Repeaters is so low, it has helped us significantly lower our power use in the branch office server rooms,” he concluded.