COMPANY:
Regional Grocery Distribution Co.
INDUSTRY:
Transportation Services
The Challenge
This Regional Grocery Distributor (RGD) is the supplier for
foodstuffs and home goods from 40 distribution centers that
connect to two main data centers through an MPLS network. The
remote sites used T1 access to the private MPLS network and
then used DSL as a backup. The data centers were equipped with
larger MPLS and internet connections.
The RGD legacy network lacked speed and efficiency. The T1
connections had to handle all traffic types. The DSL was only used
for failover and had to be manually connected. This design
caused major disruption and productivity loss during an outage.
Also, the limited MPLS bandwidth was being saturated with heavy
multimedia content and as a result, the remote locations
experienced high latency and often had to block web applications
to allow priority traffic through.
The MPLS network environment supported multicast traffic, BGP
and OSPF. The DSL failover did not, resulting in limited
functionality when a site had to fail over. Furthermore, the
isolated nature of each remote site made it difficult to failover
and switch back to the primary path. This system was not
working.
American Telesis Solutions
WAN Optimization and Aggregation
Fully utilize both the MPLS and DSL links all the time at all locations
Provide automatic failover at all locations with NO manual intervention
Enable multicast pass though to allow dynamic routing protocols on all links
Enable routing of certain web applications through the DSL connection
Ease congestion on the network by using Internet connections for some applications
24x7x365 monitoring of the network with proactive outage notification
Customer portal to view utilization
The Result
Unlike other telecom providers, American Telesis was able to
tailor a solution that addressed the customer’s needs while using
another provider’s MPLS network. This flexibility, innovation and
the addition of American Telesis Network Operations Center
resources helped meet the Regional Grocery Distributor’s needs.
American Telesis implemented WAN aggregation at the 40
remote sites by load balancing across the T1 MPLS and DSL
connections. The use of both links allowed for more efficient
bandwidth usage and reduced network congestion without
having to buy additional circuits. In fact, the RGD did not have to
replace circuits which saved tremendous time and money by
implementing this solution. Overall, there has been a net savings
in the IT department due to the proactive notification and NOC
systems provided by American Telesis
Download the pdf here – CaseStudy_GroceryDistributor