The Metro team talk: Aston Thames

During the lockdown the Metro team had to adapt quickly to new ways of working and engaging with customers. Technology was the critical success factor.

IT Manager Aston Thames’ professional career began in accounting, but his passion for computing and information technology ultimately prevailed, with Aston making his career change into IT in 2000.

Joining Metro in 2016, Aston’s two decades of IT experience across multiple disciplines and technologies has been put to good use.

Aston has been a key member of the technical team that prepared and managed the migration of Metro Shipping systems to the ultra-secure cloud platform, that ensures the protection, resilience and availability of our data.

Metro’s journey to the cloud was in its infancy when Aston joined, beginning with the transfer of the business’ onsite email system and strengthening IT Security protocols with policies, controls, procedures and technologies, that Aston co-ordinates to protect all our cloud-based systems, data, and infrastructures.

As IT Manager, Aston responsibilities embrace the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity processes that have been critical in optimising Metro’s operational capability throughout the epidemic and lockdown. 

Empowering our global team to continue to do their daily tasks while operating remotely and maintaining access to our operations systems, has ensured Metro’s service effectiveness and guaranteed the efficient maintenance of our customers’ supply chains.

‘’ Aligning our systems supports our business processes and ensures that our Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Risk Management planning keeps us agile, scalable and resilient, to continually support our customers. I am sure that, with the team that support me, we will continue to make this possible.’’
Aston Thames