French technology company Thales helped UK IT managed service provider Redcentric secure scalable connectivity to support the healthcare industry during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In response to increased demand at the onset of the pandemic, Redcentric had to scale its connectivity quickly. Thales launched a full-scale rollout of its cloud-based access, management and authentication platform to support Redcentric’s need for increased and secure connectivity, while meeting compliance issues on protecting access to sensitive services.

Nowhere saw more impact and strain as a result of the pandemic than the healthcare industry. As a managed service provider with a particular focus in healthcare, at the height of Covid-19 Redcentric was faced with the need to cope with increasing demand from customers.

Redcentric worked to alleviate that strain, rapidly scaling its connectivity. The provider turned to its long-term partner, Thales, and the organisation was able to scale its SafeNet Trusted Access cloud-based access, management and authentication platform, authenticating all software and cloud applications across multiple platforms and device.

“The pandemic has put every industry under pressure, with the world being driven online and organisations having to keep going under a variety of different guidelines” said Dirk Geeraerts, regional director at Thales. “Amid the increased risk associated with remote working and employees accessing systems outside of the traditional network perimeter, our solution provides scalability, flexibility and reliability in this digital-first world. The SafeNet Trusted Access service has allowed Redcentric to massively up-scale delivery to meet the demand created by the pandemic.”

He said the usage-based billing model also enabled Redcentric to grow as an organisation and gain customers as quickly as it could, without compromising its business model.

“In effect, it reduces admin, in turn improving efficiency and cost, while enabling businesses to overcome cash-flow challenges associated with pre-pay models,” Geeraerts said.

By validating identities, enforcing access policies and applying smart single sign-on, the service ensured secure, convenient access to numerous cloud and web-based applications. This addressed Redcentric’s need for instantly scalable and reliable technology throughout healthcare organisations across the public sector, including NHS trusts.

“Thales has been a fantastic partner to work with in terms of our goal to support the healthcare industry during this unparalleled time,” said Marc Roberts, head of networks at Redcentric. “We need solid suppliers to ensure we’re able to deliver the best to our customers. It’s not a one-way street, and we need a partner to make this work and Thales is definitely that. They took everything in their stride and delivered not only the scalability we needed, but more importantly the reliability we strive for too. With the SafeNet Trusted Access baked into our existing products, our customers now have the peace of mind that they can access services securely, wherever they are.”

Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2021, the group generated sales of €16.2bn.