South Yorkshire Housing Association

Modernising services for local tenants

The Client

South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1972 to tackle homelessness in the UK.

Today, it’s the largest housing association in the Sheffield City Region, managing nearly 6,000 homes for over 10,000 residents. With a workforce of more than 600 people, SYHA operates across South, West and North Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Around 60% of its work focuses on care and support services, helping vulnerable individuals live independently. These services include mental health support, learning disability care, social prescribing, and housing for over-50s and those experiencing homelessness.

It’s vital that our organisation stays online and available at all times, and Node4 meets our standards.

Adam Collin

Head of IT, South Yorkshire Housing Association

The Challenge

As SYHA grew, it relocated its head office and they felt like it was an ideal moment to modernise their IT infrastructure. The organisation had recently implemented a new core housing software package and needed to move away from traditional on-premises systems. With a wide range of services requiring 24/7 access, SYHA needed a reliable, scalable and cost-effective solution that wouldn’t compromise service delivery. The goal was to consolidate multiple legacy providers and adopt a cloud-first strategy that could support future growth and digital transformation.

The Solution

We stepped in to deliver a tailored managed service wrap that included hybrid cloud, colocation, SD-WAN, backup and disaster recovery. Our approach was designed to meet SYHA’s specific needs, with flexibility built in from the start. We listened closely, right-sized the solution, and included a review point after the first year to allow for adjustments. Our Fortinet VPN was scaled ahead of the pandemic, ensuring SYHA could transition 450 staff to remote working without disruption. We also supported the organisation through its first successful disaster recovery test, providing specialist guidance and a detailed report to meet business standards.

Claire Sockett, Head of IT at SYHA, said that “As our organisation grows, we needed a provider that could grow with us and ensure our digital transformation continued on an upward trajectory.”

Adam Collin, Head of IT, added that “Node4 went above and beyond when it came to the DR testing. They gave us a cloud solutions specialist, provided a comprehensive report and also assigned another account specialist to look into how we could improve and ensure it met business standards. For the first time in business history, we are in a position of full confidence.”

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Cloud-first Strategy

Disaster Recovery

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The Results

SYHA migrated its data nearly 60 miles from Sheffield to our Wakefield data centre in just two hours, with zero downtime. Since then, network reliability has dramatically improved. The organisation went from three critical P1 outages in the previous year to none, and reduced P2 outages from eleven to just one. Backup success rates hit 100%, and the flexibility of our solution allowed SYHA to easily add or remove systems. During the pandemic, our infrastructure enabled SYHA to maintain uninterrupted service delivery while transitioning to remote work.

Adam Collin shared that “Since implementing Node4, we have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of network outages we’ve experienced. It’s vital that our organisation stays online and available at all times, and Node4 meets our standards.”

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The Node4 Difference

For SYHA, our technology implementation meant a bespoke solution, a seamless migration, and the confidence to operate without compromise. We helped them stay online, stay secure, and stay focused on what matters: supporting their community. Our proactive approach, flexible design and human touch made all the difference.

Adam Collin summed it up, “There are no nasty surprises with Node4. They took the time to listen to what we needed and tailor our specific plan in the proposal.”