A Fresh Start

Liberty Global enriches the entertainment experience for 25 million customers with consolidated private cloud.

Liberty Global must constantly introduce new features to keep up with customer demand and retain its competitive advantage. With services delivered across 12 European countries and a portfolio of brands including Virgin Media, Telenet and UPC, the company needed to unite its operations to maximise agility.

Objective

As the world’s largest international cable company offering quad play services, Liberty Global must constantly introduce new features to keep up with customer demand and retain its competitive advantage. With services delivered across 12 European countries and a portfolio of brands including Virgin Media, Telenet and UPC, the company needed to unite its operations to maximise agility. A traditional data center infrastructure no longer offered the flexibility the company needed. Although Liberty Global had previously embarked on disparate cloud initiatives, it realised that to deliver the better business outcomes, it needed to consolidate its efforts.

Solution

Liberty Global worked with Computacenter to design and build a new private cloud environment based on VMware technology. Computacenter helped at every stage, from designing and implementing the container-based platform to configuring the network and providing strategic advice. Liberty Global’s cloud environment comprises around 1,000 virtual servers and supports business-critical systems, such as the company’s backend television platform and user identity solution for millions of European customers. All new services will be hosted on the environment, with hybrid cloud capabilities to be introduced in the future.

Outcome

Liberty Global now has the agility and scalability it needs to bring new products to market faster and more easily. No longer restricted by 12-month development cycles, the company can launch new features every month to provide customers with the real-time content and innovative features expected in a digital age. As well as accelerating innovation and increasing capacity, a consolidated private cloud has also enabled the company to decrease costs.