STA Travel extends network contract

STA Travel has renewed its network management contract with Azzurri Communications Australia  for the Asia-Pacific region. Part of a global contract renewal, the deal includes network monitoring, hardware support, firewall and WAN management and vital network connectivity to access the centralised STA Travel Citrix applications hosted in UK.

"Our business relies on Citrix applications hosted over 10,000 miles away," said Blair Smith, Information Systems Manager at STA Travel. "We can’t afford for those applications to be impacted by under-performing data links and networks. Azzurri ensures our network connections suit our business critical applications with best path routing and minimal latency."

Azzurri has provided network management for STA Travel in Australia since 2007 when the centralised applications were first rolled out and now connect over 100 Australasian stores to the virtualised Citrix servers in the UK data centre. The contract includes the management, monitoring and support of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-based networks and dynamic multipoint virtual private network (DMVPN) access for remote stores like Singapore and New Zealand.

"With hosted or web-based applications our network is as important as the app itself,’ commented Smith. "Our business is impacted if anything happens to the network so it is essential that our networks are first class, with efficient and responsive support; but without costing an arm and a leg.

"Azzurri has proven it can deliver everything we need for our business - they make everything work seamlessly," stated Smith.

The STA Travel’s centralised technology strategy allows travellers to walk into any store, anywhere in the world and be able to access and change their travel itineraries. Using the global Azzurri network STA staff access huge amounts of rapidly changing information on flight schedules, prices and seat availability from dozens of carriers, as well as information on domestic travel, accommodation, weather conditions, visa information, travel and insurance.

STA Travel started on campus as a travel service to meet the travel needs of adventurous students in the 1970s and by the 1980s had extended its services beyond the student to cater for all young travellers who subscribe to the STA Travel values.