The Bulletproof Network

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The Bulletproof Network

Posted On : Jan-07-2010 | seen (695) times | Article Word Count : 659 |

Filtrona Extrusion implemented a network redesign to guarantee uninterrupted business processes at sites across the United States and Mexico.

Virtela came up with a different solution. Cisco had recently released a service-level specification router update that featured the ability to translate the diffserv flag from the internal packet to the external shell of the tunnel packet, thus solving the problem. Making some minor adjustments to the router configuration allowed Virtela to keep videoconferencing within the tunnel. In addition, if Filtrona Extrusion's non-mission-critical network link went down, the videoconferencing traffic would automatically failover to the primary network.

Virtela's managed VPN service links all eight sites in the United States and Mexico. Virtela manages two of Filtrona Extrusion"s Cisco routers located in Atlanta and Tacoma, and also owns and manages the routers at all other manufacturing locations. In addition, both the Virtela network circuit and the secondary provider circuit terminate in Filtrona Extrusion"s or Virtela's routers, so Virtela is now managing the entire network.

"Typically, different carriers require separate hardware and each provider manages its own, so the customer is forced to coordinate disagreements between them," offers White. "Virtela is saving us from having to manage this ourselves. In addition to managing all the equipment, they also give us access to monitor the routers, as well."

White uses a custom simple network-management protocol system to pull data off the routers directly in order to monitor the circuits and overall network performance. He can also utilize Virtela's Web-based portal, VirtelaView, to monitor network performance statistics or obtain real-time traffic data from the Virtela cloud. White gets regular, proactive notifications from Virtela's global network operations center and the routers directly about events that might be occurring on the network.

System Tested In Mexico

Filtrona Extrusion recently quadrupled the size of its facility in Mexico. During the expansion, the existing circuits were moved from one computer room to another. At the same time, the local provider decided to upgrade the facility from a traditional LAN-line-based circuit to a wireless circuit, without informing Filtrona Extrusion of its plans.

While performing the upgrade, the LAN circuit went down and it took the provider three weeks to get it operational again. White received an e-mail notification from Virtela in the middle of the night informing him of the outage, but with the new fully redundant network in place, no one in the facility ever knew the secondary network went down. In fact, the failover was completely transparent in both directions.

Three weeks later, when the local circuit was back up, the network failed back over to the local provider with no service interruptions. "We did a lot of testing during the installation phase to ensure the network was operating as it should, but the outage in Mexico was great validation. You never want something like that to happen, but when it did, it was very reassuring to see that it had no impact on the business," says White.

Before the fully redundant network was in place, Filtrona Extrusion was experiencing 85-95 percent network uptime, depending on the circuit. Now, the company is consistently experiencing 99.95 percent uptime on all circuits. In addition, because non-critical traffic now runs on another circuit, the bandwidth available for mission-critical traffic has more than doubled, and users have noticed a difference in overall performance.

Filtrona Extrusion still operates with a small IT staff that handles the network-monitoring functions at all eight manufacturing locations during the day and relies on Virtela for after-hours monitoring. "When I came on board, we didn't have this type of network, and there's no way I could have managed this by myself" says White. "We were looking at $250,000 just to hire the staff that it would have required to run the network, not to mention the millions of dollars it was costing us in materials decisions and lost productivity due to network downtime. Now, instead of worrying about network reliability issues, we can focus on more strategic matters."

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<h1>The Bulletproof Network</h1> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_Leon.aspx'>Leon</a> Virtela came up with a different solution. Cisco had recently released a service-level specification router update that featured the ability to translate the diffserv flag from the internal packet to the external shell of the tunnel packet, thus solving the problem. Making some minor adjustments to the router configuration allowed Virtela to keep videoconferencing within the tunnel. In addition, if Filtrona Extrusion's non-mission-critical network link went down, the videoconferencing traffic would automatically failover to the primary network.

Virtela's managed VPN service links all eight sites in the United States and Mexico. Virtela manages two of Filtrona Extrusion"s Cisco routers located in Atlanta and Tacoma, and also owns and manages the routers at all other manufacturing locations. In addition, both the Virtela network circuit and the secondary provider circuit terminate in Filtrona Extrusion"s or Virtela's routers, so Virtela is now managing the entire network.

"Typically, different carriers require separate hardware and each provider manages its own, so the customer is forced to coordinate disagreements between them," offers White. "Virtela is saving us from having to manage this ourselves. In addition to managing all the equipment, they also give us access to monitor the routers, as well."

White uses a custom simple network-management protocol system to pull data off the routers directly in order to monitor the circuits and overall network performance. He can also utilize Virtela's Web-based portal, VirtelaView, to monitor network performance statistics or obtain real-time traffic data from the Virtela cloud. White gets regular, proactive notifications from Virtela's global network operations center and the routers directly about events that might be occurring on the network.

System Tested In Mexico

Filtrona Extrusion recently quadrupled the size of its facility in Mexico. During the expansion, the existing circuits were moved from one computer room to another. At the same time, the local provider decided to upgrade the facility from a traditional LAN-line-based circuit to a wireless circuit, without informing Filtrona Extrusion of its plans.

While performing the upgrade, the LAN circuit went down and it took the provider three weeks to get it operational again. White received an e-mail notification from Virtela in the middle of the night informing him of the outage, but with the new fully redundant network in place, no one in the facility ever knew the secondary network went down. In fact, the failover was completely transparent in both directions.

Three weeks later, when the local circuit was back up, the network failed back over to the local provider with no service interruptions. "We did a lot of testing during the installation phase to ensure the network was operating as it should, but the outage in Mexico was great validation. You never want something like that to happen, but when it did, it was very reassuring to see that it had no impact on the business," says White.

Before the fully redundant network was in place, Filtrona Extrusion was experiencing 85-95 percent network uptime, depending on the circuit. Now, the company is consistently experiencing 99.95 percent uptime on all circuits. In addition, because non-critical traffic now runs on another circuit, the bandwidth available for mission-critical traffic has more than doubled, and users have noticed a difference in overall performance.

Filtrona Extrusion still operates with a small IT staff that handles the network-monitoring functions at all eight manufacturing locations during the day and relies on Virtela for after-hours monitoring. "When I came on board, we didn't have this type of network, and there's no way I could have managed this by myself" says White. "We were looking at $250,000 just to hire the staff that it would have required to run the network, not to mention the millions of dollars it was costing us in materials decisions and lost productivity due to network downtime. Now, instead of worrying about network reliability issues, we can focus on more strategic matters."About the Author: Bill Dodds is vice president of sales and marketing for <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.virtela.com">.Virtela Communications </a> Virtela provides managed network services and security solutions to many of the world's largest and fastest-growing multinational companies. Currently serving customers across six continents, Virtela's network reach spans more than 190 countries. Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_The-Bulletproof-Network_8390.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_The Bulletproof Network_8390.aspx</a>

Article Source : http://www.articleseen.com/Article_The Bulletproof Network_8390.aspx

Author Resource :
Bill Dodds is vice president of sales and marketing for .Virtela Communications Virtela provides managed network services and security solutions to many of the world's largest and fastest-growing multinational companies. Currently serving customers across six continents, Virtela's network reach spans more than 190 countries.

Keywords : The Bulletproof Network,

Category : Business : Business

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