When Cardonet saved christmas

The week before Christmas is always Five Lakes’ busiest period.

With nearly 200 rooms and conference facilities for up to 550 delegates, Five Lakes – a premier resort hotel in Colchester – relies on its IT infrastructure to provide the high quality experience its guests expect.

1. The Problem

The plumbing in one of the suites failed and caused a major flood which caused substantial damage to the server room. The hotel, spa, restaurants and conference rooms were all fully booked. But the flood had wiped out booking, billing and till systems; they couldn’t check anyone in or out.

We couldn’t believe it … the flood had wiped out all our booking, billing and till systems. We couldn’t check anyone in or out. The hotel was at a complete standstill.

Jon Child, General Manager

2. The Solution

Cardonet received the alert at 5am and one of the team went immediately to the hotel to assess the damage, another team member contacted all third party service providers to begin coordinating efforts to repair and restore the infrastructure. Once it became clear that the hardware was damaged beyond repair, Cardonet organised emergency replacements – including servers, switches, routers, and firewalls and cabling. The heavy snow meant that speedy delivery wouldn’t be possible, so Cardonet’s engineers drove it there themselves

The most critical systems were identified and prioritised and by mid-afternoon that same day, they were up and running. The team worked round the clock for 24 hours, completely rebuilding the hotel’s IT infrastructure.

3. The Results

• Critical systems back online within hours
• The network completely rebuilt in 24 hours
• All 3rd party service providers centrally coordinated and systems restored effectively
• New permanent equipment procured
• Network seamlessly migrated to new equipment

Cardonet had saved Christmas for the Five Lakes Hotel.