Autex Acoustics is a leading award-winning global design company helping companies such as Google, Apple, Meta, Disney, Amazon and many more to manage noise and create conducive collaborative working environments in an office. Providing solutions such as Autex Acoustics’ wall, ceiling, screen products and systems to reduce noise reverberation, echo and delineate areas.

Over recent years, Autex has experienced substantial growth in the UK and needed a flexible and secure network infrastructure to support their evolving business needs. The company employs 42 people and operates in New Zealand, Australia, America and the UK with its UK Head Office in Yorkshire plus showroom sites in Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow and London.

Out with the Old & in with the New

Autex Acoustics experienced rapid growth in the UK over the last five years with increasing demand on bandwidth requirements for the office and remote workforce. Acceleration of cyberthreats, viruses, malware and ransom attacks highlighted the critical need to ensure their network was 100% secure and flexible. Also, managing separate networks across the multiple sites was becoming increasingly difficult to manage on a daily basis and was proving to be costly.

Network Overhaul

Abzorb, existing managed services partner advised them to have a complete network upgrade to modernise their network, secure it, ensure it was fit for their business needs today and for the future with the ability to scale up or down as required. Autex Acoustics opted for a Cisco Meraki Security Solution that comprised of new firewalls, LAN Switches and Wi-Fi access points ensuring each layer was protected along with a VPN client to connect remote workers and an SD-WAN to connect multiple sites. The deployment of Cisco Umbrella was crucial, removing threats and providing the required security to comply with industry standards and certification. It also ensures that remote workers have the same protection as office-based colleagues.    

Simon Senior, Autex Acoustics commented,
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“It wasn’t really a network refresh it was more than that because we changed the way we manage and control our network. The implementation of Cisco Umbrella and Cisco Meraki solutions have allowed us to securely control and manage our network traffic. We now have a comprehensive overview of how our network is operating, which allows us to provide our workforce with the required connectivity and the flexibility to amend our bandwidth accordingly whether our colleagues are working in the office or remotely.”

Abzorb has been extremely helpful in working with us closely to understand our network requirements for today and the future helping us with a tech roadmap, design and implementation. Simplifying our networking challenges, understanding our business and helping us to achieve our objectives.”

Safe & Sound

Their network is now secure against cyber-attacks, viruses, malware and ransom attacks and if there is an issue they are notified about it in real time so they can act immediately. Since they have centralised the management of their network with SD-WAN, all four sites are connected so activity on the network can be monitored and managed accordingly.

Autex Acoustics can now easily distribute and prioritise traffic on the network allocating bandwidth if required and responding quickly to changes. This has resulted in the network being easier to manage, providing cost-savings as well as improving performance and security. 

It has also provided them with the ability to manage more mobile devices and applications on their network. This is vital in the age of hybrid working with more people working remotely, the volume of traffic and security of the network here is no longer an issue. SD-WAN also improves their bandwidth so they can utilise video conferencing and collaboration tools more effectively, therefore increasing employee productivity and efficiency.

Cost Savings

The introduction of an alternative broadband carrier allowed Autex Acoustics to make cost savings and benefit from secure and reliable connectivity.  

Network for Today & Tomorrow

Autex Acoustics now have a secure, robust, and reliable network for today and tomorrow. Enabling them to keep cyber security risks at bay and empowering employees with faster and more efficient bandwidth and broadband to improve operations, communications and to carry on delivering a superior service to their clients.