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Nautical Control Solutions (NCS), a developer and provider of marine fuel management solutions, has chosen Data Foundry as its partner for colocation. This means NCS now houses its servers and networking equipment in Texas 1, Data Foundry's flagship data centre in Austin, Texas.

FuelTrax, the NCS fuel management system, is compatible with all types of marine vessels, engines and marine fuels, in any combination -- either for a single ship or an entire fleet. FuelTrax hardware and software technologies monitor fuel consumption and links burn rate to GPS location and time. The data is instantly sent to the bridge where the crew can make real time throttle adjustments to minimize fuel usage. All data is sent every 15 minutes via low orbit internet satellite to the FuelTrax' FuelNet shore-side web portal at Texas 1.

"Fueltrax provides real-time intelligence for vessels and fleets so they can reduce wasteful practices and improve their bottom line," said Anthony George, CEO of NCS. "We permanently store data generated by Fueltrax for our customers so they can track trends over time. So, it is critical the data is housed in an ultra-secure facility. That is why we chose Data Foundry as our colocation partner."

Texas 1 is Data Foundry's carrier-neutral, 250,000 SF data centre in Austin. Powered by two independent substations and connected to 17 of the largest network carriers, Texas 1 is one of the most redundant, connected, and secure data centres in Texas.

Based in the Houston area, NCS decided to migrate its server infrastructure from a local site to Texas 1 to ensure the best in security and reliability.

"We knew we wanted to move our mission-critical hardware away from the hurricane risks of Houston," said George. "The multiple layers of physical security at the facility made us feel comfortable that our customers' data is in the best possible data centre."

By way of the FuelNet portal, the shore-side customer fleet management team can access information and custom reports at anytime, from anywhere in the world with Internet access. They can view activities and performance metrics, historically or in real time. They can do vessel-to-vessel, crew-to-crew, and engine to-engine performance comparisons and analytics.

FuelTrax is also scalable to monitor and report fuel tank inventories by vessel and for the entire fleet at any time. It can also safeguard the refuelling process, ensuring each vessel gets the correct volume and quality of fuel. The data needs of NCS will continue to grow as new products are developed.