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| Allied Telesyn, headquartered in Bothell, Washington, has been an innovator in the development and manufacturing of high-quality, low-cost Ethernet solutions since 1987. The company has steadily grown its business by providing simple and reliable standards-based networking products. To ensure that its offices worldwide could continue growing along with the business, Allied realized it needed a new network offering flexibility, security and scalability. In response, NTT Com designed and built the company a global IP-based virtual private network (IP-VPN) that combines seamless global integration with high-level security. The Challenges Allied provides innovative routers, switches/hubs, network adapters, wireless access points, voice over IP (VoIP) and many other critical elements of business networks. As the company's worldwide business expanded, Allied struggled with the challenge of keeping its global offices closely interconnected to share knowledge on an ongoing, real-time basis. A key challenge was how to address the company's current network configuration. Allied realized that the configuration, which is built around two high traffic hubs - one in Washington and one in London, could not scale for continued growth and lacked many of the essential features of a modern global corporate network. Moreover, the company wanted to significantly increase band-width without significantly increasing construction cost. There were three special concerns that had to be addressed. The first was security. Having built networks for its own clients, Allied knew that security is one of the first areas to suffer when costs are cut. The second concern was scalability. Allied needed to ensure that it could continue to add offices around the world with relative ease. Lastly, Allied wanted assurance that whomever built the network would remain in business and continue to support the network for years to come. The Solution After carefully assessing Allied's needs, NTT Com's team of engineers designed a new IP-VPN incorporating MPLS technology. The IP-VPN enables Allied to leverage the ubiquity and cost effectiveness of IP, but without sacrificing the level of security that the company had come to expect with its previous network. The move to an IP-VPN also facilitated a significant increase in bandwidth through better utilization of network capacity. And by incorporating MPLS, which is quickly emerging as the global standard for IP-VPNs, NTT Com gave the new network a lasting foundation for the long term. The new network fully addresses Allied's concerns about scalability. With its plug-and-play configuration, it allows new offices to be added at a moment's notice with relatively little effort. Moreover, NTT Com, the international and long-distance arm of the world's largest telecommunications group, provided Allied with the long-term stability it sought before entrusting the network to an outside company. The Results Having rolled out the new IP-VPN in 14 locations worldwide, Allied has already begun to realize benefits in terms of cost savings and efficiency gains. The network facilitates rapid, cost-effective communications and collaboration between company members worldwide. Moreover, it enables the company to run shared platforms, such as Microsoft Exchange, on a global basis for enhanced collaboration capabilities. |
