SCIENCE

Brocade has announced that Business & Decision Eolas, a leading provider of business intelligence solutions, has selected Brocade to implement a new environmentally friendly data center to maintain the company's high quality of service while extending the reach of its hosted data center offerings.

Business & Decision Eolas deployed Brocade MLX routers and Brocade FastIron switches (10 GbE) as part of an architecture based on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)/virtual private LAN service (VPLS) capabilities. Leveraging high performance and efficiency, the Brocade solutions will connect the company's existing network environment to a new data center when that site goes live in January 2011.

For the various business intelligence, CRM and E-business solutions delivered from Business & Decision, hosting is value-added service delivered by its subsidiary EOLAS. Business & Decision EOLAS, whose customer base features a broad spectrum of companies, began thinking about a next-generation network in 2009: "We were looking to implement a next-generation network, which we could then use to create a VPN interconnected to physically isolated networks for managing multi-site applications. We currently have two physical data-centers, but we needed to set up a third data center to support our growth and deliver the quality of service expected by our customers," explains Gerald Dulac, Project Manager of the Green Data Center at Business & Decision EOLAS.

In October 2009, BSO Network (a local Brocade channel partner) selected Brocade for the project, based on the Brocade solutions' high performance, flexibility and low total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to competitive offerings. Brocade was selected to implement a new core network within the two existing data centers and provide the entire infrastructure for a third "ultra green" site.

"We had a specific set of criteria for this particular project, and Brocade was the only vendor to meet it. We were looking to make widespread use of optical fibre technology, which offers a number of advantages, especially on an ecological level. As part of our 'Greenetiquette' policy, which defines our commitment to make eco-responsible use of new technologies, building a data center upon those very principles seemed the obvious choice. But our project was also driven by expectations of a more pragmatic nature for our hosted customers. For each of our sites, we needed a real business continuity plan with a high level of resilience for our virtualized applications. Finally, to keep a handle on our growth, we wanted a future-proof solution from a value-added partner capable of delivering support and keeping up with our business needs. For all these criteria, Brocade was the only vendor that met our needs," explained Dulac.

The first phase of the project includes a Brocade MLX router and Brocade FastIron switch deployment to facilitate an evolution of the two existing sites into an MPLS architecture. The resulting network will use both Layer 2 services such as VPLS, and Layer 3 services such as the IP-based VPN. This step also includes the installation of dedicated equipment for the complete management of BGP Internet views.

"In today's business environment, customers demand high performance environments that are reliable, but at the same time deliver tangible cost savings," said Alberto Soto, vice president EMEA at Brocade. "The infrastructure we designed for Business & Decision EOLAS is indicative of what today's customers demand. With our class-leading solutions, we have not only met Business & Decision's immediate requirements, but have developed an architecture that will scale with the organisation, and reduce overall operational expenditure."

Brocade is working directly with Business & Decision EOLAS to implement the architecture, which seamlessly integrates into Business & Decision EOLAS "Go Green" philosophy: "We are going to include the carbon footprint of Brocade products into the analysis of our data center's energy performance. The real aim is to work hand-in-hand with Brocade and, thanks the high scalability of its solutions, we can do that easily," concluded Dulac.