At Aston Martin, IT Accelerates the Speed of Business

Aston Martin Lagonda, one of the most prestigious British sports car brands, had a bold plan to build seven new cars in seven years, including the world’s first luxury electric vehicle. Delivering on that plan meant that IT needed to be more innovative, agile, and responsive. 

Overview


Company Aston Martin
Industry Manufacturing
Products used EX2300EX4300Junos OSQFX5100QFX5110
Region EMEA
Aston Martin Image
Customer Success At-a-glance

Accelerated

IT to meet the speed of business

Created

A consistent network that supports diverse office and manufacturing requirements

Empowered

Automotive design and production teams to work easily with CAD, modeling, and engineering software

Challenge

 

Aston Martin Lagonda takes luxury cars to a new level. As part of its strategic plan to build a long-term, sustainable automotive business, the company developed its Second Century plan to create seven new models in seven years, including Lagonda all-electric vehicles.

“Aston Martin exists to be the great British sports car brand that builds the most accomplished automotive art in the world,” says Steve O’Connor, director of IT at Aston Martin.

To deliver on its Second Century plan, Aston Martin Lagonda needed to better align business and IT. Information technology supports the heart of the business— everything from in-house software development, automotive design and engineering, and hand-crafted production to everyday finance, marketing, and other business operations. “The IT department’s biggest challenge was to move with the speed of business,” says O’Connor. “We needed to be more innovative, agile, and responsive to deliver IT services faster.”

IT transformation began at Aston Martin Lagonda’s head office in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom. “We wanted a consistent network platform across the two environments on which we could run our IT functions,” says Darryl Alder, network architect at Aston Martin. Aston Martin Lagonda selected Juniper Networks to bring more agility to its network services.

“The first thing I look for in any potential partner is someone who is going to be an extension of my IT function,” O’Connor says. “Once we met Juniper and understood how their business related to our business, it was quite clear that Juniper would give us the extension of the IT function that we needed.”

Aston Martin Lagonda Challenge
Solution

 

Aston Martin uses Juniper Networks EX4300, EX2300, and EX2200 Ethernet Switches for campus switching at its offices and manufacturing sites. As Alder explains, “The EX4300 is really important because it has gigabit connectivity on all of the ports, which is really important for our design team to work effectively.

In its data center, Aston Martin Lagonda uses the Juniper Networks QFX5100 and QFX5110 Switches for its IP fabric. “With the fabric, we can put all of our Layer 3 connectivity in the core and keep Layer 2 in the access, which allows us to be quite scalable,” says Alder. “I can easily add new switches to the core without any changes to the network architecture.”

Network issues are few and far between. In the past two years, only three percent of service desk tickets were network-related.

The Aston Martin Lagonda network team appreciates the simplicity and reliability of the Junos operating system, which runs across Juniper’s routing, switching, and security platforms.

“Junos OS is really easy for the team to manage,” says Alder. “We can effectively template the configurations and it’s really easy to deploy any extensions to the network.”

At the same time, the network team is advancing its use of automation. “With automation, we don’t need to bring more people on and we can consistently scale up,” O’Connor explains. “The simplicity of Juniper means that we can be a lean network team,” Alder adds.

Aston Martin Lagonda Solution
Outcome

 

The Aston Martin Lagonda network team appreciates the simplicity and reliability of the Junos operating system, which runs across Juniper’s routing, switching, and security platforms.

“Junos OS is really easy for the team to manage,” says Alder. “We can effectively template the configurations and it’s really easy to deploy any extensions to the network.”

At the same time, the network team is advancing its use of automation. “With automation, we don’t need to bring more people on and we can consistently scale up,” O’Connor explains. “The simplicity of Juniper means that we can be a lean network team,” Alder adds.

The relationship between Aston Martin Lagonda and Juniper is strong. “One of the key differentiators with Juniper is the relationship that our technical team has with the Juniper technical team,” says O’Connor. “It’s on a peer-to-peer level, and that’s really key because it gets us to where we need to be to keep the business running.”

“IT is viewed these days as a utility. It just needs to work. It’s key for us to have a network that is proven and gives us the outcomes that we need as a business. Juniper delivers that.”

“With Juniper, we have a high-performance network that is simpler, more consistent, and easier to support,” says O’Connor. “Juniper gives us a better return on investment.”

Aston Martin Lagonda Outcome

Aston Martin Accelerates Innovation with Juniper Networks. (0:30)

Steve O’Connor, Director of IT, Aston Martin
"Every Aston Martin is unique. We as an IT function have to be able to enable the business to deliver on that promise to each and every customer."
Steve O’Connor Director of IT, Aston Martin

More About the Partnership

Learn how Aston Martin Lagonda is simplifying IT operations with Juniper Networks. (17:25)

Published November 2019