Case Study – Major Network Infrastructure Refresh

Regardless of the size of your business, your IT infrastructure is a vital part of your operation. Constantly changing technology places demands on the speed, reliability, security, availability and flexibility of your infrastructure and therefore it is vital for your IT Lifecycle to be able to proactively address infrastructure demands.

We at Unitedgrids have a vast pool of experience in the design, implementation and management of IT infrastructure particularly in the network delivery and security areas.

Our client, a large corporation, was suffering from a number of infrastructure capacity and reliability issues that were having serious operational and commercial impact and preventing the adoption of applications to improve its customer experience. The business needed to address the problem as a matter of urgency
and embarked on a massive infrastructure refresh program. A key part of the program was the network delivery and security elements and our team was brought in to investigate the issues, design the solution, test the solution and implement the network delivery and security elements of the program for over 2,000 devices supporting a myriad of business processes to some 80,000 + users.

Requirements:
  • Improve data throughput and application delivery.
  • Zero points of failure.
  • Future proofing for adoption of new delivery mechanisms.
  • Enhanced security at all levels of entry.
  • Negative impact on legacy systems.
  • Completion within a tight timeline.
What we did:
  • Established a technical test lab to establish the fit for purpose and fit for use core hardware and management systems.
  • Gathered all applications and delivery requirements for testing on established solution.
  • High Level Designed network solution for approval.
  • Low Level Designed network solution for implementation through established PM process.
  • Implemented and supported network solution in conjunction with other areas of the infrastructure refresh ie; DC team, Server/Desktop team, Application team, risk and compliance team.
Technology involved:
  • Routing & Switching.
  • Security.
Result:
  • Massively improved performance of data throughput.
  • Highly resilient with zero single points of failure.
  • Highly secure at all entry points and on all devices.
  • Modular hardware implementation for future expansion.
  • Implemented within the clients aggressive timescale.
Benefits and Achievements:
  • Customer able to embrace business requirements using new and evolving technology.
  • A network infrastructure that supports the company’s aggressive IT footprint and digital transition.
  • Enhanced employee and customer experience
  • An infrastructure that provides zero downtime thus reducing overall risk to business.
Engineering Level Used:
  • Cisco CCIE Switch & Routing
  • Cisco CCIE Security