Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) is a leading quantity surveying consultancy firm in the real estate and construction industries. With more than 140 offices worldwide and over 4,600 employees, RLB provides comprehensive professional services including cost and project management and quantity surveying. RLB was awarded ‘The QS Team of the Year’ at the RICS Hong Kong Awards 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

RLB is undergoing a digital transformation to meet global business needs and capitalize on opportunities in the Greater Bay Area and Mainland China. The company is improving its organization by adopting cloud applications, but traditional network infrastructure is inadequate for this transformation. Challenges include high MPLS costs, inflexibility, and operational complexity. To address these, RLB seeks a solution from Alibaba Cloud and Fortinet to implement a secure and agile SD-WAN with cloud on-ramp.

Extensive Data Center Coverage in Asia-Pacific: Rich data center resources in the Asia-Pacific region provide superior network connectivity and services.

Security and Compliance: Alibaba Cloud meets global security and compliance standards across multiple industries and regions, ensuring data security and compliance.

Advanced and Stable Cloud Native Technology: Alibaba Cloud offers easy-to-use and highly stable cloud native technologies that support rapid business development.

Robust Partner Ecosystem: Alibaba Cloud possesses a strong network of partners and technology solutions to help customers meet diverse needs.

Alibaba Cloud and Fortinet have collaborated to provide a combined network and security solution, enabling RLB to establish a high-performance, secure SD-WAN network using FortiGate on Alibaba Cloud's global infrastructure. The Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) facilitates cloud connectivity across Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong SAR, and South Korea, addressing latency and routing challenges with Fortinet's Secure SD-WAN solution. This joint solution enhances security and management with threat protection and centralized IT operations. Multisoft, an authorized project partner, contributes by offering network and cloud architecture assessments for the RLB project, which transitioned from proof of concept to production in about two months.

RLB saved SD-WAN operation cost and improves overall network efficiency.

Leveraging Alibaba Cloud CEN and Fortinet, and securing SD-WAN solutions to optimize connectivity from RLB’s branch offices across North Asia has reduced 50% of costs, and overall network latency by 80-90%, enhancing user experience of over 1500 staff.

Increased application accessibility and network availability over Secure SD-WAN, unified and standardized the Greater China area network and security control.

The building of an agile and cloud on-ramp secure network in preparing for RLB Digital Transformation and Cloud journey.

Fortinet’s comprehensive suite of security solutions ensures the protection of critical assets and data on Alibaba Cloud, while mitigating potential cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

RLB's collaboration with Alibaba Cloud has improved its cloud infrastructure by utilizing Alibaba's extensive data center resources and advanced technologies, enhancing scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency. Alibaba Cloud's presence across the Asia-Pacific region supports business innovation with secure SD-WAN connectivity, AI and serverless computing. With Alibaba Cloud and Fortinet, RLB aims to further its digital transformation and optimize network performance for a better customer experience.