Avaya – Real Time Solutions for Complex Network Consolidation

As the first bank established in Australia, Westpac Bank has almost 12 million customers. Then in 2008, Westpac merged with St. George Bank. As a result, a major network consolidating program was needed. When it came time to consolidate its data center and network virtualization, the Westpac Banking Corporation turned to Avaya’s VENA Fabric Connect Technology.

First, the St. George disaster recover data center needed to be moved to a new location in Western Sydney. A high-speed Ethernet connection was also required between the centers to replicate the existing services before gradually relocating the physical servers. The traditional approach would be a complex and risky process that would provision virtual local area networks (VLAN) on every edge, distribution, and core switch between data centers. The existing vendor was asked to provide a new design after the original proposal failed. But the new plan wouldn’t meet the deadlines and required double the hardware.

Since St. George had previously used Avaya’s networking solutions, they turned to them for an alternative proposal. The proposed solution was to use Avaya’s Fabric Connect network virtualization utilizing their Shortest Path Bridging-based technology to span all their data centers. Fabric Connect simplifies network design, deployment and management by creating a “network fabric” within and between data centers. Switches automatically learn and adjust to the shortest paths through the Ethernet network. The solution involved deploying two new Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 systems. It took just 15 minutes to bridge the networks between all three data centers. The initial roll out of the system was completed in May 2013.

Using Avaya to virtualize your network eliminates cumbersome manual tasks and reduces overall IT operating expenses. Security features are integrated to safely segment data and create a unified solution that converges data, voice, video, and storage. The system allows for service changes to be implemented in real time, up to 27 times faster than historical networking.

Avaya is a global provider of communication solutions. Companies of all sizes around the world can utilize their unified communication contact centers, networking and related services. If you’re in the market for Avaya networking products, ASAP Memory (a proprietary website of ASAP Semiconductor) is a premier distributor of Avaya equipment. ASAP Memory stocks a variety of both obsolete and current equipment and specializes in procuring hard-to-find items. Browse our selection at www.asap-memory.com or email us at sales@asap-memory.com for more information or to request a quote.