ENGINEERING

Force10 Networks has announced that Ctrip.com International has selected the C-Series resilient switch and the S-Series access switch as the foundation of a new network backbone designed to support its dynamic website and scalable, green call center.

"We selected the C-Series and S-Series because of their excellent performance-cost ratio and outstanding energy-saving ability," said Chen Di, director of technical operations, Ctrip. "With their unrivaled port density, we believe they will ensure the effective protection of our investment in the future."

As a leading online travel service provider of hotel accommodations, airline tickets, packaged tours and corporate travel management in China, Ctrip integrated the high-tech and conventional aspects of the travel industry and achieved great success from its call center and Web-based business model. After outgrowing its Shanghai call center, Ctrip added a new call center in Nantong, configured to fit more than 12,000 call seats. Upon its completion, Ctrip will move its main operations from Shanghai to Nantong, at which point the call center will become the world's largest in the travel industry.

Ctrip's Nantong call center also will enable the company to not only accommodate clients' phone calls in time but, more importantly, it will help facilitate and optimize after-sales services for its customers and ultimately enhance their loyalty to Ctrip. However, the company understood that building and maintaining a flexible, stable and highly reliable call center required an efficient network infrastructure, which also will be leveraged to provide network services for an upgraded back-up network in Shanghai.

Force10 Switches Deliver Host of Features to Support Ctrip's Expansion

As Ctrip continues to grow its travel business, the company is confident that the C-Series and S-Series solutions will provide the greater performance, port density and investment protection that the network will require. The non-blocking, switch fabric capacity of the C-Series reaches up to 1.536 Tbps and up to 952 Mpps L2/L3 packet forwarding capacity with just five microsecond switching latency under full load for 64-byte frames. To ensure continued high performance in the core, but maintain a smaller, eco-friendly footprint and investment protection, the C-Series resilient switches provide up to 384 line-rate Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports and 64 line-rate 10 GbE ports.

With its high density, the stackable S-Series brings scalability to the edge network of Ctrip's Nantong call center and an outstanding performance-cost ratio that is expected to also help eliminate any potential bandwidth bottlenecks.

Ctrip selected Force10 C-Series and S-Series switches in part due to the underlying modular Force10 operating system (FTOS) software, which promotes network agility and resiliency while delivering network services that contribute to lower power consumption. For example, Force10 PowerSmart technology is able to automatically sense the power demand from equipment connected to it and configure the power supply accordingly through the application of LLDP, which is based on multiple standards and has been deployed extensively. Since this automatic power configuration technology makes it possible for enterprises to only use the necessary amount of power, total power consumption can be reduced significantly.

Dedicated to the Construction of a Green Call Center System

With Chinese enterprises paying more attention to energy conservation and environmental protection, power management has become a major priority for data centers. Going forward, Ctrip required a network that can cut down on unnecessary power consumption in order for the company to have a green and energy-saving data center.

"Ctrip is indicative of many businesses in Asia that are taking proactive steps to ensure their IT infrastructure offers the next-generation network services required to better support business growth while being mindful to lower management costs and those incurred from energy consumption," said Steve Garrison, vice president, marketing, Force10 Networks. "Working with businesses such as Ctrip, we will continue to answer the demand of our global customers to provide high performance, greener and more reliable network solutions."