No matter their size, businesses depend heavily on a solid network infrastructure for their daily operations to proceed without disruption. A network infrastructure is the backbone of a company’s communications both internally and externally. It serves to connect various devices bringing together the hardware components and software applications together by allowing them to interact seamlessly between each other. These networks can range from small scale applications to larger scale applications which are found in organisations having large premises or multiple sites.
Companies are often cautious to invest in network upgrades because of the expense and labour this process involves. However, making an investment in modernising an organisation’s current infrastructure is vital since an outdated network can greatly hinder productivity. Ultimately, it can also result in an even costlier situation, not to mention inferior service to customers.
Simonds Farsons Cisk plc has recently completed the upgrade of its network infrastructure by replacing core switches with HP enterprise campus switches. The backbone connectivity of the infrastructure was initially based on gigabit technology, which by current technological standards was not sufficient to meet all the brewery’s requirements. In addition, each switch forming part of the backbone had to be managed separately, making changes to the configuration a costly exercise.
A network infrastructure is the backbone of a company’s communications both internally and externally
In view of this scenario, Megabyte Limited, together with HP, designed a tailor-made solution based on the latest HP Chassis Core switches. As part of the new solution this backbone was replaced with an HP 10504 core switch at each data centre providing a total aggregate bandwidth of 40Gb/s between data centres running on separate optic fibre links. This link offered 20 times more backbone connectivity.
Both chassis are running in Intelligent Resilient Fabric (IRF) mode. With HP IRF technology, the HP 10500 Switch Series can be virtualised across four chassis with a single management interface, enabling flatter, more agile networks. With this feature the brewery can manage both switches as one switch simplifying the administration of the backbone.
The HP 10500 Switch Series includes a high-speed fully distributed next-generation architecture that simplifies large-scale switching architecture, reduces possible fault points, and provides greater defence capabilities. It also includes a robust set of security and quality of services features to build a highly trusted network that meets your ever-changing corporate policies and compliances.
HP has focused its investment into its networking product division and today by using open standards, software-defined networking and automation, it outperforms its competition. Only recently HP acquired Aruba Network for a transaction value of US$ 3bn, creating a leader in enterprise mobility, positioning HP to enable and accelerate the enterprise transition to a converged campus network.
The company’s decision to invest in the upgrade of their network infrastructure has allowed it to provide enough switching capacity to meet the demands of bandwidth-intensive applications today and in the future. Given this recent project and other developments in its IT infrastructure, Simonds Farsons Cisk plc is now able to manage two data centres both interconnected with fibre and utilising virtualised technology. Furthermore, the backbone can complement the investment made in the data centres since users can now be connected to IT resources in a fully redundant mode.
HP and Megabyte have provided a reliable solution which has remarkably boosted their main server infrastructure and enabled them to be on the forefront of technological development.
www.megabyte.net
Ing. Ivan Muscat is head of Engineering & Infrastructure Megabyte Ltd.