Stockbroker invests £1.3m in WAN network

Stockbroker Brewin Dolphin Securities is spending £1.3m on a new wide area network, connecting 35 offices.

The broker, which manages £19bn in funds on behalf of more than 100,000 clients, said large volumes of data need to be moved between its offices in its day-to-day business.

The company chose Thus to provide the network - which will also be ready for future applications such as VoIP - between the sites, following a competitive tender.

Brewin Dolphin's head of IS infrastructure, Raymond Logan, said because Thus could provide direct connectivity from its points of presence in the UK, it meant the stockbroker did not have to rely on more than one provider for tail circuits.

He said in a statement: "This helps to reduce points of failure at the major Brewin Dolphin offices and increases the robustness that our organisation requires for mission critical applications and future VoIP technologies."

Thus chief operating officer Phil Male said Brewin Dolphin needed to ensure a highly resilient infrastructure due to the high proportion of employees dependent on their ability to access information from the network.