After successfully rolling out their educational materials to schools in the UK and US, EducationCity turned its sights to international markets, in particular China. EducationCity is transforming teaching and learning in language arts, math, science, computing, and English as a second language for elementary school teachers and students in more than 15,500 schools across the globe. They provide interactive creative learning tools and educational activities that are easily accessible online.
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EducationCity have been operating in China for around five years so far, initially hosting their Asia-specific learning tools in data centres around the UK and US. However, this approach didn’t offer a long-term solution as it created issues with latency and performance. EducationCity had to find a China hosting solution, but they lacked the expertise to address the legislative and regulatory roadblocks related to private and public cloud offerings in China.
Datapipe’s decade of experience in the asia-pacific market was invaluable
To help navigate the many hurdles the company faced in expanding to China, EducationCity turned to Datapipe. Datapipe has deep experience in the Asia- Pacific market. The company opened its Datapipe Asia office in 2005 and has since provided on-the-ground support out of the company’s Hong Kong office and data centres in Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong. This experience made Datapipe an easy choice for EducationCity when seeking help for their move into China.
The main roadblock EducationCity faced when expanding to China was the complex regulatory requirements set in place by the Chinese government. EducationCity worked with Datapipe contacts in both Hong Kong and Shanghai to navigate the legal landscape and help smooth EducationCity’s entry into data centres in Shanghai.
“Datapipe was really good at guiding us through the move to China and helping us get the right sign-off from various government authorities. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without their on-the-ground support and expertise,” says EducationCity Technical Director, Graham Lyden.
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The entire process from engaging with Datapipe to overcoming the complex procedures involved with hosting in China, getting contracts signed, and deploying EducationCity’s software in China only took six months. Now, because of Datapipe’s on-the-ground presence and experience in deploying public, private and hybrid environments in China, EducationCity is available in primary schools across the region. Additionally, EducationCity was able to utilise Datapipe Asia as an extension of their IT team, saving them the substantial overhead costs associated with opening a satellite office.