The Access Group boosts SaaS resilience with Pure Storage

The Access Group has adopted the Pure Storage platform to enhance the resilience and reliability of its global Software as a Service (SaaS) operations and secure critical customer data worldwide.

The Access Group, headquartered in the UK, is a provider of business management software to more than 160,000 small and medium-sized organisations spanning Europe, the United States, and Asia Pacific. As the company has grown predominantly through mergers and acquisitions, it has inherited a diverse array of IT systems from various vendors, leading to a complex and fragmented data environment.

This environment supports a large volume of mission-critical operations, including tax payments in Australia and the UK, payroll for the UK National Health Service, and electronic payments in the United States. Supporting millions of users, data protection and uninterrupted service is a core requirement for the business.

Three years ago, The Access Group initiated a programme to consolidate and standardise its IT infrastructure. The initiative included a redesign of its global data centre architecture and evaluation of data storage providers. After comprehensive review, the company selected Pure Storage to provide tier one data storage infrastructure, citing the provider's ability to match both current and future requirements.

Managing global data

The transition to Pure Storage has enabled The Access Group to standardise management of its complex data landscape, which involves 30,000 virtual machines and 100,000 databases, without causing disruption to its multiple business applications across various geographies.

An important benefit has been the ability to manage data in compliance with a range of data sovereignty obligations in the regions where the company operates. Real-time data visibility, achieved through Pure Storage's FlashArray and Pure1 tools, supports the company's IT team with access, administration, and control over all global data assets.

The group has also realised efficiencies in managing a highly virtualised infrastructure, with integration into VMware platforms enabling seamless oversight and operation of more than 30,000 virtual machines. This is particularly significant for an organisation that operates applications developed by over 20 different constituent companies, often using a range of older technologies.

Resilience for critical workloads

Resilience and reliability in storage infrastructure has been particularly critical for workloads in sectors such as healthcare, where service interruptions can have serious consequences. The Pure Storage platform has delivered the uptime required for The Access Group to support these parts of its operations effectively.

"We started working with Pure Storage three years ago as it was the only storage vendor that was able to show us a roadmap closely aligned to our business needs. The Access Group is made up of over 20 different companies, so we must ensure that all those systems continue to run while we architect and modernize our IT infrastructure for the future. Pure Storage's vision of the enterprise data cloud is exactly what we are building so we're glad we made the decision to partner with them all those years ago." - Rolf Krolke, Regional Technology Director, APAC, The Access Group

In addition to day-to-day stability, the collaboration has equipped The Access Group to pursue its long-term data ambitions. The company recently launched a new artificial intelligence service, Access Evo, and is developing an enterprise data cloud strategy supported by Pure Storage's suite of cloud and data management tools, including Pure Fusion and Portworx.

Provider perspective

"The Access Group is a great example of an organisation that will benefit from an Enterprise Data Cloud, Pure Storage's architectural approach to data storage and management. Faced with rising data volumes and rapidly evolving business demands, they have the additional complexity of navigating data sovereignty across multiple geographies. The Pure Storage platform is empowering them to manage data with the control, automation and access needed to lead in a data-driven world." - Altay Ayyuce, Area Vice President, Australia & New Zealand, Pure Storage

The organisational shift from pure infrastructure modernisation to broader digital transformation is enabled by a consolidated, scalable platform. This foundation is positioned to support ongoing expansion into sectors such as artificial intelligence and increasing data volume, while ensuring compliance and efficiency in the management of critical data assets across borders.