The challenge

All of HMY Group’s offices and production facilities are connected and communicate in real time. The company uses Microsoft 365, Teams, design tools and a manufacturing system that runs on a global distributed network, with the software hosted in the cloud and at HMY Group’s data centers, supporting users on four continents. With so much traffic, it is crucial for the network to be fast and reliable.

Connectivity and digital transformation initiatives are key to the company’s expansion plan. To grow, the company must be able to quickly extend its network to establish new locations. Teresa Tomás, CIO at HMY Group, highlights this as a key reason for moving from MPLS to SD‑WAN: “We needed easier, less expensive connectivity in new locations to help us establish operations in new countries. Each site we add needs a secure, reliable connection to the internet and HMY Group’s cloud. This is challenging in some parts of the world; it is not always simple, and it can be expensive to connect through local providers.”

“We needed easier, less expensive connectivity in new locations to help us establish operations in new countries. Each site we add needs a secure, reliable connection to the internet and HMY Group’s cloud. This is challenging in some parts of the world; it is not always simple, and it can be expensive to connect through local providers.”

Teresa Tomás – CIO at Hmy Group

The solution

Managed SD-WAN

The HMY Group uses GTT Managed SD-WAN to connect its 15 sites in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K., Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and China to a global network that extends to its partners as well as its employees. SD-WAN brings efficient routing and load balancing to ensure fast performance for the business applications and brings automatic network failover for increased resilience.

Visibility and control with EtherVision

GTT’s Managed SD-WAN solution includes the EtherVision portal, which gives the IT team visibility into everything happening on the network, including tickets, monitoring, billing and ordering. EtherVision allows HMY Group’s IT team to manage the network centrally and remotely and to monitor and control the performance of devices and Software-as-a-Service applications.

GTT Cloud Connect

GTT’s private Cloud Connect gives users across the company low-latency access to data and applications in the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Voice

GTT has provided SIP trunking and a cloud-based PBX solution for 300 extensions for HMY Group’s locations in France and Spain.

Managed Security

GTT’s solution includes centralized firewalls for northern and southern Europe and the Americas. These protect HMY Group’s internet traffic and connections to third parties such as suppliers and partners. GTT manages the firewalls as part of the broader integrated managed service and ensures the same level of security for all sites across the network.

Professional Services

GTT professional services supported the HMY Group during the migration from MPLS to SD-WAN. The project took just six months and was completed on schedule with no interruption to the company’s business.

Upon completion of the SD-WAN installation, GTT supports the system with network maintenance, and day-to-day operational support.

“SD‑WAN is giving us a great deal more for our IT budget. We have been able to double the bandwidth available at each site while reducing our spend on the network by 22%.”

Mario Paricio – CTO at Hmy Group

The results

Faster network, better service

The migration to the new SD‑WAN happened without any technical issues or downtime and has benefited employees across the company. “SD‑WAN gives our users more bandwidth with all the right services on one network,” Paricio explains. “Our employees can access our corporate applications and data wherever they are and serve our customers flawlessly.”

Global network visibility

The EtherVision customer portal gives HMY Group’s IT team visibility of the entire network, giving them the ability to set policies and monitor the use and performance of devices and applications. Paricio adds, “We are not a large team, and this visibility makes it much easier for us to manage the network.”

Easier, efficient connectivity

SD‑WAN makes it much easier for HMY Group to quickly deploy new sites in locations such as China and South America where local services may not be well established. Paricio says, “GTT’s global Tier 1 IP backbone reaches more places and has SD‑WAN gateways embedded so we can connect new sites through a CPA [customerprovided access] link. This makes it easier and less expensive to add new sites.”

Faster manufacturing workflows

HMY Group relies on CAD software to design and develop retail space concepts for clients, and the SD‑WAN solution enables users to access and run these bandwidth‑intensive applications quickly and efficiently. Paricio explains, “We can use SD‑WAN’s central traffic routing management to prioritize applications and optimize the routing of data through the network and make our manufacturing workflows more efficient.”

Increased bandwidth, optimized budget

The SD‑WAN solution makes operations more efficient. With MPLS, HMY Group needed one connection per site for traffic with a second redundant line for backup. Now, SD‑WAN runs network traffic over both site connections, effectively doubling the network capacity at every site while reducing the overall cost per site. This makes operations more competitive and optimizes the IT budget return on investment.

“We can use SD‑WAN’s central traffic routing management to prioritize applications and optimize the routing of data through the network and make our manufacturing workflows more efficient.””

Mario Paricio – CTO at Hmy Group

The connected future

Cybersecurity remains a high priority for HMY Group, so the company is looking at GTT’s cloud‑based security solution, Secure Connect, and the SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) framework to enhance security at every site.

Tomás concludes, “GTT’s Managed SD‑WAN and global tier 1 IP backbone positions us for growth and delivers on a key business objective. Like our clients in the retail sector, we operate across several continents, and we need to move fast when we add a new site to our network. GTT’s Managed SD‑WAN solution makes our company more agile, and we can start conducting business in new locations much more efficiently

“We appreciate the level of professionalism GTT has brought, as well as the benefits that come from working with a global managed network and security services provider. GTT’s team supported us through the change from MPLS to SD‑WAN, and we leverage their technical knowledge to enhance our own skills so we can support our users in a more informed way. We are very happy with GTT’s responsiveness and level of service, and we know that our business is supported by a fast, resilient network.”

Mario Paricio – CTO at Hmy Group