Client Case Study:

Future Publishing

Future Publishing (LSE:FUTR), founded in 1985, are one of the UK’s largest independent Media & Publishing companies. In addition to well known print titles like Total Film, Linux Format, SFX and Official Playstation Magazine, Future has also become a major presence online with Global Top 100 sites like Techradar, PC Gamer, Gamesradar and Gizmodo UK boasting over 70 million individual users, and around 1 billion page views, every month.

[aUseful.com] have been working with Future Publishing on all of their major IP Network, Telephony, Data Center and Security projects since 2006 - helping ensure Future’s Network and IT Services have supported them through periods of huge transformation in the Media & Publishing sectors, enabling the rapid growth of Future’s online services and allowing for smoother integration for Future’s acquisitions of Imagine Publishing, Newbay Media and Purch B2C.

Future offers a full range of media services, from content for print and online platforms, Interactive and Video production, Photographic Studios and Audience Insight tools to major events like the T3 Awards and The Photography Show.

This complex and dynamic mix of requirements places high demands on Future’s Network and Technology Infrastructure - enabling everything from 4k Video Editing and scene rendering to gaming from corporate sites and mission critical Content Delivery for web, print and partner platforms like Apple Newsstand.

[aUseful.com] Lead Consultant, Martin White, has also been responsible for training and mentoring of Future’s Network Engineering and Operations staff, helping Future to develop a highly skilled and flexible small team. Martin has also assisted when Future have needed to expand the Networking team - helping define job requirements, reviewing applications and providing technical scenario based testing and input at interviews.

Major Projects

Over the last decade of working with Future Publishing, [aUseful.com] have undertaken a number of major projects, including:

• A full audit of Future’s IP Network, Corporate IT Systems and other Infrastructure (2006).

• Redesign of Future’s Corporate Network (2007/2008)

  • Becoming the first EMEA deployment of Cisco’s (then new) Virtual Switch Supervisor (VSS) technology, with geographic diversity making best use of Future’s two existing primary server rooms in separate buildings in Bath.

  • Achieved a CAPEX saving of ~£300k+ compared to other proposed options and OPEX savings of over £60k/year compared to their legacy systems.

  • Eliminated regular outages which had plagued the legacy network solution.

  • Increased capacity within and between Future’s 10 UK sites by an average factor of 20 while improving WAN performance for US and Australian offices.

  • Leveraged Future’s existing public AS to provide better cost/performance for both Corporate and Public services.

  • Improved the design, resilience and capacity of Future’s existing Public Hosting Data Centre network and peering.

• Migration of the Core UK WAN network away from sites in Bath to Future’s Colocation facilities in London. (2015):

  • Migration and in service refresh of the Core WAN network first deployed in 2007 from two sites in Bath to London Data Centres to allow Future to restructure and move offices.

  • Relocation of all Corporate IT Services to a Hybrid Public/Private Cloud with services either migrated to the Colo DCs or to PaaS/IaaS solutions.

  • Design and deployment of a DWDM based Data Centre Interconnect network, re-using existing Dark Fibre paths and deploying new Cross Connects.

  • Rapid technology refresh of Future’s Bath HQ and new London Office to allow for a denser and more diverse user base.

  • Achieved OPEX savings in excess of £100k/year.

• Redesign of Future’s Public Hosting Infrastructure (2016)

  • Set Future up as a RIPE LIR to launch new ASN (AS20596), with new IPv4 and IPv6 allocations.

  • Review and rationalisation of Future’s Colocation footprint, from 14+ racks to 6, spread across 3 London Data Centres for flexibility and resilience (combined with previous project).

  • Leveraged and extended DWDM network linking Future’s Colo DCs to provide a, much needed, 80x increase in East/West connectivity between nodes, both in each Physical DC and across multiple DCs.

  • Improved bandwidth and predictable latency allowed Future to further automate their build and deployment processes.

  • Increased North/South bandwidth by a factor of 10 with new IP Transit and Public Peering at LINX while drastically reducing cost, latency and site load times.

  • Reduced OPEX spend by over £400k/year compared to old ASN, network, racks and additional external hosting.

• Design of a series of new, standardised Branch Office Network templates, known internally as “Skeleton Networks” (2017).

  • Provides standardization between new remote branch offices.

  • Allows for easier integration for both Private WAN and Internet VPN services.

  • Enabled more rapid integration of new offices and acquisitions.

  • Opens path towards increased network automation, with more of a common framework for all sites.