Newport  has a fleet of 19 modern bulk carriers and has already installed 7 vessels with Navarino. In this article, Ms Theofano Somaripa, IT Manager for Newport, discusses why the company chose Navarino as their technology partner.

For connectivity, Newport has chosen Inmarsat Fleet Xpress, on the 2MB/512 MIR 128/32 CIR plan. ‘Fleet Xpress has enabled several new functionalities for our vessels’ said Theofano. ‘Its’ fixed fee, unlimited nature enables our ships to quickly download larger files, such as electronic charts, without having to worry about data consumption and the speed of Fleet Xpress is very good. Of course most of our data traffic is crew internet, which we provide to our seafarers in PINS of 6 GB for 40 USD per month.

We chose to install Intellian GXNX antennas – I prefer the 60cm because it is more manageable and easier to install by the crew, without the need for a crane. I have worked with several antenna types and I find that Intellian GXNX is best – reliable, simple to set up, and trustworthy.

To manage our vessels’ high-speed FX connectivity, we have installed Infinity, which we use to manage onboard virtual machines, our vessel firewalls, and Infinity’s live map also allows me to see at a glance if our vessels are online or not – I really like both the map and firewall that Infinity offers, both are much better than our pervious solution.

We have also installed Spectrum, which really helps us manage the onboard inventory of IT assets and devices on our ships’ networks – Spectrum’s asset management tool is very useful. Its automatically-populated network diagram also allows me to quickly check the status of all assets and devices that are connected on both crew and business networks. In addition, Spectrum’s application library allows me to check the apps installed on all my onboard computers and to verify that they all have the most updated versions of, Skype, for example. Spectrum also has a very useful Windows update tool which allows me to easily roll out such updates across a vessels’ computers all together, which is both time saving and very convenient.

For cyber security, we chose to install Angel. This is a very well-developed cyber security platform and is pretty much a complete cyber package. I like that the Angel Security Operations Centre monitors our vessels 24/7, and if they find anything suspicious, they alert us – in fact this has happened a couple of times and so Angel has definitely helped our vessels avoid some potential cyber incidents.

Overall I am very happy that we have chosen Navarino as our technology partner – their services are well developed and their support is very good.’

Ioannis Brougiannakis, Navarino Account Manager for Newport added ‘Since the beginning of our cooperation with Newport, we have worked closely with Theofano to configure the best setup of our services onboard their fleet. I believe that the combination of Fleet Xpress for connectivity, Infinity for managing that connectivity, Spectrum for remote monitoring and Angel for cyber security protection result in a modern fleet that is highly advanced, flexible and very capable for both business operations and crew welfare. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Newport and to helping them achieve maximum value from the services we provide them.’