How Chart Industries and Koch Transformed M&A Network Integration with Modern Network Infrastructure

In the high-stakes world of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), network integration is often the roadblock delaying synergy and value realization. Legacy infrastructure, manual provisioning, and platform-specific complexity can prolong integrations out for months – sometimes years.

Chart Industries and Koch overcame these challenges by adopting Alkira’s Network Infrastructure-as-a-Service (NIaaS) – a platform purpose-built for M&A network transformation. The result? Dramatically faster time-to-value, lower operational overhead, and multi-cloud scalability, all without added headcount.

Chart Industries: Rapid M&A Integration at Global Scale

When Chart acquired UK-based Howden, it expanded from 40 to 130+ global locations across Azure, AWS, and GCP. The 50-person IT team needed a more efficient approach than traditional methods to handle this scale of multi-cloud integration.

Challenges in M&A Network Integration:

• Disparate cloud architectures across regions
• Limited internal resources for cloud network engineering
• Demand for immediate integration of IoT infrastructure
• Different SDWAN technologies across acquired companies

How Alkira Simplified Chart’s M&A Network Integration:

• Integrated 90 new sites in a fraction of the traditional 3–6 months
• Deployed 60 IoT VPN endpoints in just 3 days
• Enabled one-click network provisioning across cloud platforms
• Connected disparate SDWAN technologies without immediate hardware replacement
• No need to hire additional networking staff

Koch: Multi-Cloud Network Automation at the Speed of Business

Koch, with over 700 global sites in 70 countries, needed to modernize its infrastructure to support rapid M&A activity. Its previous approach – using traditional transport hubs – couldn’t keep pace.

Key Network Challenges During M&A:

• Seven separate global networks with inconsistent architecture
• 3-6 month lead time for cloud region deployments using legacy systems
• Limited availability of multi-cloud networking expertise

Alkira Delivered Multi-Cloud Network Transformation:

• Replaced 10 transport hubs with 2 Alkira Cloud Exchange Points (CXPs)
• Completed Azure deployment in 1 day vs. traditional 3–6 months
• Automated network provisioning using a single cloud-agnostic interface
• Empowered internal teams without requiring cloud-specific skills
• Consolidated to a single instance, eliminating redundant licensing costs and renewal fees with Alkira’s resource sharing capabilities

Why Network Infrastructure-as-a-Service Is the Future of M&A

As M&A activity increases across industries, so does the urgency to eliminate IT bottlenecks. Alkira enables enterprise IT teams to:

• Accelerate M&A integration timelines from months to days
• Reduce costs by consolidating legacy infrastructure
• Unify multi-cloud environments without adding specialized headcount
• Ensure network security and visibility across hybrid architectures

These customer success stories prove that cloud networking for M&A is no longer a future vision – it’s a business-critical reality.

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