Belfast IT firm boosts Ulster Rugby’s cyber ‘defence’

Ulster Rugby has successfully completed a significant project to boost its cyber defences in a partnership with leading Belfast-headquartered IT company Leaf IT.

The ‘network and security’ upgrade, delivered by Leaf IT, is part of a drive by the club to modernise the infrastructure that ensures the smooth running of Kingspan Stadium day-to-day, and on match night.

The investment allows for effective management of matchdays at the ground, bringing multiple partners and systems, including broadcasters, streaming services, CCTV, lighting, ticketing, hospitality, bar and restaurant facilities all onto one stable network.

Additionally, new firewall security and a series of fail-safes also ensures the likelihood of any outage on one of those systems is greatly reduced.

Leaf IT chief executive Steven Goldblatt, said: “We are proud to have a longstanding relationship with Ulster Rugby as their outsourced IT Cloud and Infrastructure partner.

“This latest project represents a major new element of that relationship, and we are proud to play a key role in literally keeping the lights on at Kingspan Stadium on matchdays.

“Getting rugby right on the pitch is one thing, but there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes, by numerous third parties, to produce a memorable matchday for fans.

“This upgrade to the network and security at Ulster Rugby’s home ground brings the stadium’s digital infrastructure right up to modern standards, ensuring it can cope with the ever-increasing demands placed upon it.”

Head of operations and recruitment at Ulster Rugby, Bryn Cunningham, explained: “We would like to thank Leaf IT for their continued support in ensuring that Kingspan Stadium is a world-class venue, which is able to play host to our Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s games, along with key domestic fixtures, with today’s announcement reflecting our ongoing investment in our home ground.

“It’s great to be able to work with a local business on this latest project, and I encourage any other businesses, or potential partners, across Ulster to get in touch directly if they would also like to play a role in the continued success of our club.”

In addition to the network and security upgrade, Leaf IT provides Ulster Rugby with IT support, cybersecurity services such as email filtering, disaster recovery solutions, and also the club’s Microsoft partner of choice supplying Microsoft Cloud services including Email, Intranet and Cloud Infrastructure.

Leaf IT, which is also celebrating its 20th anniversary, has offices in Belfast and Dublin and boasts a mix of clients including George Best Belfast City Airport, MCS Group, Translink, Bar of Ireland, and construction consultants Mitchell McDermott. It also works closely with leading local charities Action Cancer, The Now Group and Autism NI, delivering a range of IT services.

The business was recently named Cybersecurity Partner of the Year by global software company ConnectWise, chosen from a pool of 44,000 partners.