Chart Industries expands multicloud sites to over 130 worldwide

Chart Industries, based in Georgia, recently acquired Howden, a UK-based company. This deal, worth over $6 billion, increased Chart's multicloud sites from 40 to over 130 worldwide. To improve efficiency and help with global connectivity, Chart turned to Alkira's networking-as-a-service (NaaS) to overhaul its network infrastructure. With the acquisition, Chart gained numerous local resources and has spent about a year integrating Howden into its systems. Susan Tlacil, a network architect at Chart, shared that Alkira's NaaS allowed them to quickly connect 90 sites without forcing IT staff to deal with complicated networking structures. This integration is especially beneficial for future mergers and acquisitions. Chart has been migrating to Microsoft Azure over the last five years and currently has about 50% of its services in the cloud. Their services include cryogenic gas liquefaction and they are exploring liquid cooling solutions for data centers, which is increasingly important as AI-focused data centers expand. At first, Chart worked with Alkira to manage customer connections to their storage equipment. Alkira quickly built the needed infrastructure, saving Chart months of work. This partnership has grown, focusing on integrating Howden's sites while still collaborating closely with Cisco, their main provider. According to John Burke, CTO of IT consultancy Nemertes, Alkira's services have offered Chart a level of simplicity and reliability across all cloud platforms. This has led to a significant reduction in the time and effort required to maintain their networks. Experts note that today's CIOs must now pay close attention to networking due to the complexities of cloud services. Alkira is seen as unique for addressing both networking and security issues across public and private systems. As Chart continues to grow and make acquisitions, they consider how multicloud networking can support new technologies, particularly in data center cooling and potential AI applications. Tlacil expressed interest in using Alkira to connect all of Chart's data centers for disaster recovery so they can quickly respond to outages. She envisions a future where networks can easily connect any service, wherever it’s located.