Royal College of Physicians Standardises on Brocade to Support Move to Unified Communications

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Brocade® BRCD today announced that the Royal College of Physicians of London has upgraded its network to underpin the implementation of advanced IP-based unified communications applications such as VoIP, unified messaging and HD video conferencing.

Based on the Brocade FastIron SX 800 series 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) backbone switches and 1 GbE FastIron GS PoE¹ edge switches, the new network will substantially increase performance and ensure first-class service delivery to members, along with commercial clients who use the College’s award-winning conference facilities². The equipment was supplied by Brocade partner, Calyx. Additionally, the new switches will enhance network resilience, reduce power consumption and enhance virtualisation projects maximising the College’s investment in new server infrastructure.

Founded in 1518 by a charter from King Henry VIII, the College is responsible for providing and setting standards in clinical practice, education and training, conducting assessments and examinations, supporting doctors in their practice of medicine and advising Government, the public and the profession on health care issues. Internationally renowned with over 23,000 members and fellows, it employs 300 staff and has an annual income of £21.4 million.

Christopher Venning, the Royal College of Physicians’ IT network and services manager, said: “Last year we hit a crunch point with network capacity and decided to upgrade. Faster Internet connectivity had to be provided to conference delegates. Our 15 year old PBX was end of life, giving us the opportunity to move to unified communications technology, and we wanted to save on staff and committee members’ travel costs through HD video conferencing. The new equipment gives us a 10-fold performance increase comfortably allowing us to run all these new services.”

Following a competitive analysis, the college standardised on Brocade for its entire Layer 2/3 and Layer 4-7 networking needs. Venning added: “We’re trying to do a lot at the College with a relatively small team of IT staff who manage our systems day-to-day. Selecting a single, end-to-end vendor means simplified management, plus we’ve used Brocade’s equipment happily for years [previously had Brocade FastIron 1500 switches] so have the utmost confidence in the technology and its ability. ”

In addition to performance, Brocade also offered the most attractive financial proposition with the latest generation Brocade FastIron backbone switches consuming up to 40 percent less power than previous models, thereby reducing the college’s operational expenditure (OpEx).

Two Brocade FastIron SX 800 switches now make up the core of the network, dual linked for resilience, with 28 Brocade FastIron GS PoE edge switches installed in wiring closets throughout the college’s four London sites, and its Oxford premises.

Brocade’s ServerIron Layer 4-7 application switching technology has also been deployed to ensure availability of around 14 websites the College hosts. For example, it manages the membership³ examination website – on behalf of the three royal colleges of physicians of the UK⁴ -

The network upgrade has increased reliability substantially, now at 99.95 percent. This is vital given the college generates substantial income from its conference facilities where dependable Internet connectivity is crucial. Furthermore, the College runs large scale clinical audits where it typically has a narrow window in which to collect research data and process it in statistical packages, so network availability is a must.

In conjunction with the network upgrade, the College has refreshed its server environment, reducing the estate by over 70 percent (36 physical servers down to eight virtual servers). The new high performance Brocade switches ensure that this virtualised environment operates smoothly with no traffic bottlenecks. As part of its unified communications roll-out, a HD video conferencing solution has been implemented, along with a VoIP platform and over 400 VoIP handsets. In addition, unified messaging services and VoIP handsets for remote workers have been deployed to complete the new communications infrastructure.

Ongoing maintenance and support is provided by Calyx, with the new switches preconfigured off site to speed up the migration and cause less disruption for the College.

Venning concluded: “I am particularly proud that, during the upgrade, we experienced no downtime and this is a credit to both suppliers who have delivered exactly what they said.”

Ulrich Plechschmidt, vice president, EMEA at Brocade, stated: “Like all organizations, particularly not-for-profit, the Royal College of Physicians has to balance getting the best technology, at the best price, which will evolve with its demands and deliver reliable service. Having used Brocade technology for over eight years, the college knew that we offered the best solutions on the market and I am delighted that it has standardized on our next generation FastIron switches to underpin its unified communications strategy.”

About Brocade

Brocade® BRCD develops extraordinary networking solutions that enable today’s complex, data-intensive businesses to optimize information connectivity and maximize the business value of their data. For more information, visit www.brocade.com

Brocade, the B-wing symbol, BigIron, DCX, Fabric OS, FastIron, IronPoint, IronShield, IronView, IronWare, JetCore, NetIron, SecureIron, ServerIron, StorageX, and TurboIron are registered trademarks, and DCFM, Extraordinary Networks, and SAN Health are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.

© 2009 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

¹ Power over Ethernet

² Voted no.1 UK in the 2008 Business Development Research Consultants Awards (second year running)

³ Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in the United Kingdom

⁴ The three UK colleges are the Royal College of Physicians in London, the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow

Brocade
EMEA PR & AR
Stuart Marks, +44 (0) 1784 496474
Mob: +44 (0) 7734 688062
markss@brocade.com

Copyright 2009 Business Wire

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