LiveRoute, a part of MDS Computers Group and a cloud solutions provider in the Middle East, has enabled Shelf Drilling, a contractor of jack-up rigs based in Dubai, to digitally transform its operations and embark on a cloud journey
LiveRoute helped Shelf Drilling to deploy Microsoft Azure and Office 365 to become an agile and scalable cloud-based organisation.
Ian M Clydesdale, director of IT, Shelf Drilling, said, “Shelf Drilling acquired its entire fleet of rigs in a single transaction and our establishment necessitated an infrastructure design that was truly ‘fit-for-purpose’ in line with our overarching company strategy. When we first started looking for vendors, it was important for us to find the right one offering newest and best technology without the hindrance of legacy systems, and Microsoft was our obvious choice.”
“We signed up LiveRoute as they are a Microsoft Gold Partner delivering cloud-based solutions in the region, who met our requirements completely. LiveRoute’s team of technology experts spent a considerable amount of time discussing how Cloud-based productivity solutions could overcome our challenges while improving cost efficiencies with a tailored approach,” he added.
Roger Kakhia, EVP, MDS, stated, “We created a template for office and rig services that were then replicated across the company’s entire environment. With this standardised approach, we injected simplicity into a complex network structure with a solution that was designed to be totally integrated, simple to understand and easy to support.”
Since LiveRoute’s plan was implemented, each Shelf Drilling rig now operates its own local infrastructure to support basic computing services such as file and print, email and office productivity tools (Office 365), ERP (preventative maintenance, inventory and purchasing systems), personnel on-the-job training and competency management, health and safety monitoring and management services and rig operations management systems.
Each rig system collects data locally and synchronises this data across dedicated satellite communications links back to the core systems.
“Rather than attempt to run multiple diverse projects each year, we try to focus on specific areas. Last year we focused on security and improved our security profile considerably. Next year, the company’s focus will be on endpoint security and the extension of our multi-factor authentication to include access to any corporate resource outside of our company network,” concluded Clydesdale.
