Case Studies
Multi-location Wide Area Network and Business Continuity
Challenge
A national real estate management company needed to provide access to centralized data, residing at its corporate headquarters, to all of its branch offices. Initial requirements identified the need for a highly secure, cost effective, dedicated network connecting the remote locations to headquarters. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution was an option, but there were concerns about managing and supporting this type of network.
Solution
We designed and implemented a private, dedicated network utilizing Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Frame Relay circuits as the "last mile" connection between the remote locations and the corporate data. This hybrid Private DSL and Frame Relay network solution provides comparable functionality to dedicated private line architecture at a fraction of the cost.
Since this is not an Internet based service, the connections are secure, the performance and reliability is greater, and the threat of viruses and malicious attacks is removed. In addition, support costs associated with an Internet based solution (client VPN hardware/software, VPN concentrator, support staff) were eliminated.
The remote offices are able to connect to the management company’s internal resources as easily as if they were located at the corporate office. Adding or removing remote offices to or from this network requires little internal changes on company’s part and can be completed almost instantaneously.
By providing secure, high-speed access into the company’s centralized information resources, a competitive edge could be developed by increasing remote office productivity and improving corporate communications. Another benefit of offering the company this multi-location wide area network service would be overall business continuity in the event of a disaster. By incorporating colocation and management services into the wide area network solution, a secondary access method, into the corporate data, would be provided should the company’s physical office space or primary connection become unavailable.
We provide fully managed colocation services within our Chicago Colocation facility for e-mail and business application infrastructure. By aggregating all of the remote location’s circuits into a single connection to the company’s servers, we were able to significantly reduce hardware and software system requirements while improving the manageability and scalability of the company’s system. IDC Global Networks also provides data backup and recovery and network security services for a comprehensive, high availability (100%) solution.
To help this company achieve its goals, we:
- Designed and implemented a nationwide network
- Provided server colocation
- Aggregated diverse last mile technologies into a single “pipe”
- Incorporated data backup and recovery services
- Initiated 24 x 7 monitoring and management
As a direct result of IDC Global Networks’ efforts, the real estate management company has achieved all of their initial goals as well as created a competitive advantage and developed a Business Continuity process while augmenting their IT resources and receiving a single point of contact for all of their network services; all at significant cost savings over traditional single vendor/technology solutions.
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