Arrowdawn and Fortinet link up for Operational Technology Workshop
The latest cutting-edge capabilities in operational technology are to be showcased for businesses at an innovative Aberdeen workshop.
IT networking and communications consultancy, Arrowdawn, and cybersecurity global leader, Fortinet, are teaming up to host the event next month.
The free workshop takes place from 12 to 4pm on Wednesday, June 5, at The Chester Hotel in Aberdeen.
Attendees will have the unique opportunity to dive into the world of operational technology (OT) security and explore the vast capabilities of the Fortinet security platform.
The event is aimed at any organisation that utilises OT networks, such as businesses in the energy, manufacturing, transportation, distillery, timber merchant and utilities sectors.
OT refers to the use of technology in industrial and infrastructure settings to monitor and control physical processes. Unlike traditional IT systems that primarily deal with digital data, OT interfaces directly with machinery and equipment.
Arrowdawn’s Gordon Adie, managing director; Jake Newby, cyber security analyst and Lucian Petrus, network engineer, will be in attendance.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided before the event begins with a welcome from Arrowdawn, followed by speakers from Fortinet.
Ben White, UK&I OT business development manager, will introduce Fortinet’s OT solutions and Craig Coleman, OT systems engineer will discuss Fortinet’s OT capabilities, aligning them with the Purdue Reference Architecture model.
Additionally, a live FortiGate OT demonstration highlighting the OT security service will also take place. The event will conclude with a Q&A session and open forum, followed by networking drinks.
Gordon Adie said: “Arrowdawn is thrilled to be hosting this event in collaboration with Fortinet. Attendees can expect to gain a great deal of insight into Fortinet’s impressive OT solutions and its OT security service. Our team are looking forward to this exciting opportunity and engaging with industry experts and participants to foster innovative discussions.”
The event is free to attend, however, limited spaces are available. To register, please visit: https://web.cvent.com/event/522cebfd-81ee-4faf-ab53-27589b51ecbf/summary?RefId=TechWorkshop&elqTrackId=f86b18745a324b4396a67203214b3a84
Aberdeen-based Arrowdawn supports 300 offices across 25 countries and its client base includes owner-managed Scottish businesses with multiple sites through to projects for operators, global oilfield service firms and the leading UK air navigational services provider. Fortinet, founded in California, is leading the way in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. It has a global customer base of more than 755,000 customers and over 50 enterprise cybersecurity products. Arrowdawn is a specialist, Select certified provider of Fortinet products.
Arrowdawn: a valued partner in customer service strategy
Arrowdawn collaborates with IT partners to support customer networking and communication requirements. The result: first-rate project delivery and unrivalled expertise. Here operations manager Graeme Niven, of global IT firm Cegal, outlines the value of a relationship built on trust and integrity.
Graeme Niven, Operations Manager, Cegal
Cegal has partnered with Arrowdawn over the past decade to provide world-class service and solutions to meet our client expectations.
Arrowdawn provides first-rate service and expertise around the Cisco product range. The business delivers network consultancy, solution design\implementation and support, primarily focused on the networking stack.
Cegal partners with Arrowdawn’s to provide the following service to our shared clients:
- Wide Area Network solutions and support
- Global telephony solutions and support
- Network security solutions and support
Cegal traditionally works in higher levels of the IT stack, within the operating system and application layers.
We find partnering with Arrowdawn extremely valuable to our common clients. This partnership allows our client access to expertise and focused technical support across the full IT stack.
Arrowdawn is a company that delivers excellent customer service. It provides efficient issue resolution and incident tracking.
In particular, Arrowdawn’s excellent root-cause analysis on fault finding is a service that is extremely valuable to our shared client base.
Arrowdawn has a consistency on technical expertise and a consultative approach. This can be seen when dealing with any member of the Arrowdawn team. We find all interactions with Arrowdawn are handled to an extremely high and consistent standard.
We would have no hesitation in recommending them for networking support projects.
Arrowdawn shortlisted at Northern Star Business Awards
Arrowdawn has been named a finalist in the prestigious Northern Star Business Awards.
The company has been shortlisted in the Customer First category at the awards which are organised by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce. The gala event is due to take place on Thursday, March 11 (2021) at the P&J Live venue.
Gordon Adie, managing director at Arrowdawn, said: “The business has been built on a relentless commitment to customer service over the past 20 years. It’s fitting, therefore, that this has been recognised in the Customer First category of these highly-respected awards.
“Everyone connected to Arrowdawn has played their part and worked extremely hard to ensure that we deliver a consistent and valued service to our clients. We are delighted to be nominated for this award.”
This year saw a record 130 nominations submitted for 12 the categories.
List of finalists:
https://www.agcc.co.uk/news-article/finalists-announced-for-northern-star-business-awards-1
What will be ‘business as usual’ after Covid-19 pandemic is over?
Gordon Adie, managing director at Arrowdawn
The world of work may never be the same again after these unprecedented times.
The Covid-19 pandemic has, for the moment, changed the way that millions of us perform our everyday roles. The question, I guess, is: have we permanently reshaped the working landscape?
Specifically, the lockdown has seen businesses around the world embrace home working on a mass scale; a once unimaginable triumph for networking technology.
It was a sudden transition for many organisations as they adjusted their operations to keep their personnel safe and minimise spread of the virus, while supporting their business continuity goals as best they could.
In recent weeks, as a specialist network solutions provider, we’ve helped customers transition to what is a ‘new normal’ for most enterprises. Having said that, the principles behind it are very familiar to us at Arrowdawn.
One of the core elements of our customer offering is the provision of remote support whenever it’s required. In fact, the nature of our business and how we deliver support means our people seldom spend more than a few hours on customer sites at any given time.
We’ve always embraced the Smart Hands approach, collaborating with customers to achieve ‘zero touch’ system deployments where possible. Modern technology fully enables such an approach – one that also has a carbon offset benefit.
By way of example, a project to configure three separate networks – corporate, contractor and guest – at 16 sites around the world was completed without an Arrowdawn network engineer leaving the office – it was all handled remotely. The benefit to the client is the reduced reliance on expensive on-premise resources. Our model also allows multiple network projects to be carried out by an experienced network engineer, rather than the client utilising a member of staff that may also have to focus on the wider network and communications strategy. To use an analogy, it’s the client’s train but we drive it to ensure everything is running as it should be through monitoring and maintenance support.
The events of recent weeks have served to demonstrate that remote working – even when embraced at short notice – can be made to work well, with the right network support. As a business that’s based significantly on remote service methodologies, we’ve been able to accommodate a surge in demand for our services without any major changes to our operations. It raises an interesting point: do we physically need to be in the ‘same room’ to work effectively together?
More than 50 clients at 300 sites across 25 countries have been able to call on our network, security, maintenance, VoIP services and expertise as and when required. It’s a plug-in-and-play solution that utilises the power of technological advances. It’s a smart way to operate in terms of cost, time and resource.
There are, of course, far more significant implications associated with the pandemic and the focus of all of us should be on staying home, protecting our health services and safeguarding lives.
However, from a strategic business perspective – and looking to the longer term – I believe we could be on the threshold of radical, and permanent, change in how we do our work.
#StaySafe
Cisco specialist Arrowdawn nets Five contracts
Arrowdawn has secured a series of contracts with a combined value of £200,000.
The Cisco specialist, which supports 300 client offices across 25 countries, has landed additional projects from five companies seeking further support and maintenance for the upgrade of existing infrastructure.
Arrowdawn will upgrade a drilling support service firm’s local area network (LAN) and wi-fi in five offices across the UK, the Middle East and Norway, while for another oil and gas firm it will deliver LAN and firewall upgrades on six vessels.
An industrial services company has called on Arrowdawn to support and maintain communications and networks infrastructure across 28 global sites.
Arrowdawn will support and maintain a UK residential care company’s communications and networks infrastructure across 24 locations, while further LAN and wide area network (WAN) projects will be carried out across 28 premises for a business in the agricultural sector.
Gordon Adie, managing director at Arrowdawn, said: “These latest contract agreements highlight the high level and broad range of our capabilities in the networks and communications arena across a diverse range of sectors. We’re playing a key role for companies requiring an upgrade or the scaling of operations. Our proactive support and ability to deliver projects within tight timeframes was a key factor in winning this work.”
Arrowdawn delivers a broad range of network services and communications products and services to customers including data network infrastructure, VPN, wifi connectivity, VoIP and security solutions. Clients include North Sea oil and gas operators and global oilfield service firms.
The company specialises in the integration and migration of customer networks, particularly those requiring connectivity between multiple sites on a global scale. In addition, it has separated and integrated networks for large clients following merger and acquisition activity.
Arrowdawn also provides proactive 24/7 maintenance and monitoring support to clients with direct contact to an engineer rather than a call centre.
Arrowdawn opportunity for RGU student
Arrowdawn has continued its commitment to supporting the next generation of IT professionals.
The Aberdeen-based company, which provides network and communication support to 300 offices across 27 countries, has given a year’s work placement to Jonathan Merchant, a third-year student at Robert Gordon University.
The BSc (Hons) computer network management and design student is gaining an insight into networks, communications and cybersecurity at Arrowdawn, a Cisco specialist which was established 19 years ago.
Gordon Adie, managing director at Arrowdawn, said: “We’re delighted to continue the relationship with Robert Gordon University. This is an opportunity for Jonathan to gain practical experience to complement his academic learning. It’s good to have him on board.”
Jonathan, a former Dyce Academy pupil, said: “The placement is a first-class opportunity to put what I’ve learned at Robert Gordon University into practice. Working with industry professionals also gives me a broader understanding of what it takes to have a career in the network, communication and security arena.”
Phil Smith, who was on a similar placement at Arrowdawn and gained a BSc (Hons) in computer network management and design at RGU, is now a network engineer with the company.
Project successes highlighted as Arrowdawn celebrates 18th birthday
Arrowdawn NOC
It’s by no means a landmark figure in business terms – but Arrowdawn has just turned 18 years old.
From the very beginning we’ve stuck to what we do best: networks, communications and security in the Cisco arena.
We’ve not been tempted to expand into traditional IT services, instead preferring to partner with those in that area to deliver network and comms support and all that goes with it.
Sticking to what we do best is a model that has worked well for us – and will continue to do so in the future as even greater demands are placed on networks and communications infrastructure, and the integrity of those systems.
Currently we provide 24/7 support to more than 250+ offices across more than 20 countries. Most of our contracts are direct with clients, but we are not adverse to collaboration. Far from it, we see partnerships forming a key part of our growth strategy in the next few years.
Sometimes it’s good to take a step back, though, and recognise a few of the successful projects delivered by our staff in Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh.
These include:
•Oil major: Offshore LAN Upgrades
•Logistics giant: Global LAN & WAN refresh and 24x7x365 network support
•Professional services firm: UK Voice, Data and WiFi Network support
•Engineering services firm: Global LAN and Voice network support
•Global supply business: Global Voice network support
•Oil & gas engineering contractor: Global VPN network support
•Global oil & gas products/services: Voice, Data and WiFi support
•Operator – resource augmentation
•North Sea comms: Radar network support – across 16 offshore platforms (10 operators)
•Integrated services provider: UK Voice, Data and WiFi support
•Operator: Offshore Process Control Network redesign, implementation and support
•Operator: LAN and Data Centre deployment and support for engineering contractor
•Housebuilder: UK Data and WiFi network support
•Oilfield services: Voice network support
•New operator – Voice network support
•Operator: European Network and Data Centre support
•Oilfield services – HQ firewall replacement
We’ve been trusted to handle some major projects – and delivered. Thank you to all our valued customers over the years, many of whom have been with since the early days. We’re looking forward to celebrating our next anniversary – and many more years beyond that.
Contract wins for communications and networks specialist
Arrowdawn has secured contracts worth £330,000 in the past three months.
The business has delivered projects for two operators, a global oilfield services firm and an integrated services provider for the oil and gas industry. Arrowdawn hopes to secure further contract wins in the next few months due to its capability to handle complex onshore, offshore and global scopes of work.
The latest projects included the upgrade of local area network (LAN) on offshore platforms, replacement of outdated communications infrastructure, implementation of a wireless network and cloud-managed infrastructure and support for LAN, WAN (wide area network) and voice and data networks across 13 global offices.
Gordon Adie, managing director of Arrowdawn, said: “These relatively complex projects have created upgraded networks for clients as they look to utilise modern-day technologies and communication solutions.
“More and more companies are looking to upgrade networks to harness the benefits of the Internet of Things, and in doing so turn data into insights and opportunities. This means there is a greater requirement for a more robust and resilient communication and network infrastructure.
“We were delighted to support clients’ IT departments to implement these projects which will support business continuity and future growth. The recent contracts wins are a credit to our in-house expertise and commitment to customer service.”
The company specialises in the integration and migration of customer networks, particularly those requiring connectivity between multiple sites on a global scale.