Dixons Carphone Group adopts IBM Cloud for seamless scalability

LONDON and ARMONK, NY - 13 Jul 2016: [ IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Dixons Carphone Group, Europe’s largest telecommunications retail and services company, is migrating to the IBM Cloud from IBM datacenters in the United Kingdom to integrate two distinct infrastructures and enable easy scaling to better manage the peaks and valleys of seasonal shopping trends.

Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse merged in 2014 presenting an opportunity to consolidate the infrastructures leveraging cloud solutions for flexibility, performance and cost savings. After assessing the long-term values and scalability of multiple cloud providers, the company turned to IBM Cloud for a smooth transition to a hybrid cloud infrastructure.

As a result, Dixons Carphone is planning to migrate about 2,500 server images from both enterprises with supporting database and middleware components from both infrastructures to an IBM hybrid cloud platform that comprises a private IBM Cloud with bare metal servers for production workloads and public IBM Cloud platform for non-production workloads.

The company is anticipating the IBM hybrid cloud solution will bring greater IT efficiency over the next two years enabling an even more seamless ecommerce and retail experience during busy retail periods including holidays and new product launches.

“We know we can trust IBM Cloud to seamlessly integrate the infrastructures of both companies into one hybrid cloud that will enable us to continue focusing on other parts of the business,” said David Hennessy, IT Director, Dixons Carphone. “We are the retailer people trust to bring technology to life in a way that works for them and we are confident in IBM’s ability to support us in the next stage of our development.”

“Dixons Carphone is taking an innovative approach to the challenges of merging enterprises,” said Rashik Parmar, Lead IBM Cloud Architect and Distinguished Engineer, IBM Europe. “Establishing a hybrid cloud infrastructure will provide flexibility, scalability and security across multiple environments, which will not only expedite the integration, but provide a path for growth going forward.”

Dixons Carphone was voted ‘Retailer of the Year’ at the Retail Week Awards 2016.

IBM in June was named Hybrid Cloud Development Platform Leader by market research firm, TBR.

About Dixons Carphone:

Dixons Carphone plc is Europe's leading specialist electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company, employing over 42,000 people in eleven countries. Focused on helping customers navigate the connected world, Dixons Carphone offers a comprehensive range of electrical and mobile products, connectivity and expert after-sales services from the Geek Squad and Knowhow. Dixons Carphone's primary brands include Carphone Warehouse and CurrysPCWorld in the UK & Ireland, Elkjøp, Elkjøp Phonehouse, Elgiganten, Elgiganten Phone House, Gigantti and Lefdal in the Nordic countries, Kotsovolos in Greece, Dixons Travel in a number of UK & Ireland airports and Phone House in Spain. Our key service brands include Knowhow in the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, and Geek Squad in the UK, Ireland and Spain.

Business-to-business (B2B) services are provided through Connected World Services, PC World Business and Carphone Warehouse Business. Connected World Services aims to leverage the Group's existing expertise, operating processes and technology to provide a range of services to businesses.