ENGINEERING

Service providers of every size and type are choosing Brocade solutions to develop networks that deliver increasingly advanced combinations of voice, data, video and mobility (quad-play) services to businesses and consumers. These providers list reliability, low total cost of ownership (TCO) and a collaborative relationship as fundamental reasons for working with Brocade as their network provider of choice.

Two such service providers, Veracity and Home Telephone, have deployed reliable, high-performance Brocade-based networks that are delivering compelling ROI and enabling the service providers to differentiate their offerings for a strategic business advantage.

Veracity in April announced the completion of a major upgrade to its core network, effectively doubling the capacity and providing N+1 redundancy on its FTTP (Fiber to the Premise) network. The upgrade represents the final phase of a long-term strategic initiative aimed at providing the next-generation features, scalability, reliability, redundancy and the quality of service for which the company is known. These upgrades were made using Brocade technology.

"At Veracity we tend look at each technology and buy the best of the breed," said Chris Modesitt, CTO at Veracity. "I think the fact that we've chosen Brocade in the core and also at the edge of our network speaks volumes for both the technology and the company. We needed a partner, not just a vendor, and we found one in Brocade."

Veracity has deployed a mix of 4- and 16-slot Brocade NetIron MLX Series core routers across its network along with Brocade NetIron CER Series routers at points of presence dispersed regionally. Utilizing the high-performance Brocade solutions, Veracity has a powerful, scalable network infrastructure to offer a wide range of leading-edge services.

Home Telephone deployed NetIron MLX Series routers at the core of its network, with Brocade FastIron GS Series switches deployed broadly to facilitate the ever-increasing capacity needs of a quad-play network and to provide critical monitoring and reporting data. The advanced multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) functionality of the Brocade solutions has significantly reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) for Home Telephone, while helping to ensure customer satisfaction, especially with large business customers.

"It wasn't that long ago that we were doing VLANs and trunking across the network," said Gil Dupree, head of the data networks division for Home Telephone. "Today, we're using MPLS. The end customer sees better uptime and throughput, and our partners are able to effortlessly turn up multiple VLANs on their networks. We don't have to go back and reconfigure our network every time. The back office functionality we get with the Brocade gear really makes a quantifiable difference in terms of cost and management."

Home Telephone is working closely with local governments and Google, which recently built a large data center in the area, to make nearby Monck's Corner one of the first test sites for Google Fiber, the giant's own FTTP network.

"There's a fantastic level of innovation taking place in the provider space, not only from the few with household names, but possibly even more so at regional providers," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager, IP Products Division, Brocade. "In many cases people living outside major city centers have access to more advanced and better bundled services than their friends and family in major metro areas. We're extremely pleased to be working with providers who, like us, listen closely to their customers and give them what they want."