Transurban engages Logicalis to manage global
WAN
Transurban Group is an
international toll road developer and manager with assets in
Australia and North America. Transurban manages five out of
Sydney’s nine motorways, including the Hills M2, Eastern
Distributor and M5 Motorway and CityLink in Melbourne. In the US,
Transurban manages the Pocahontas Parkway in Richmond, Virginia and
is constructing High Occupancy Toll lanes on the Capital Beltway in
Washington, DC. The company employs 700 people in ten offices in
Sydney, Melbourne and the US.
Challenge
Transurban was using a legacy Uecomm WAN network, which did not
have redundancy and was complex to manage, with even small changes
requiring hours of work by network engineers.
With the company’s rapid expansion domestically and
internationally, an inefficient, ageing network was becoming a
major challenge to maintain and manage.
The network is an integral part of Transurban’s business so if it
was to fail, toll roads would not be able to capture customer data
for billing, potentially resulting in lost revenue. Headquartered
in Melbourne, Transurban’s Australian network also services its US
offices, managing mail deliveries, applications and data.
Therefore, Transurban sought a strategic partner to provide a
technical solution that matched its growing IT needs.
The challenge for the partner was to streamline and simplify
Transurban’s network, while ensuring a smooth transition during
deployment.
Solution
Transurban’s initial project with Logicalis was to engage the
networking specialist to verify a third-party proposed WAN
solution, from a technical and feasibility perspective.
Stemming from the success of this project, Transurban engaged
Logicalis to redesign and develop its entire LAN and WAN
infrastructure.
Daniel Sharkey, Infrastructure Partner Manager, Transurban,
said, “We were very impressed with Logicalis’ proposal and
capabilities. Having worked with Logicalis on the WAN feasibility
project, we were confident with Logicalis’ ability to manage the
redesign and development of our new network.
"The aim of the upgrade was to increase network performance and
productivity between all ten sites in Australia and the US. We
needed a partner who could manage the difficult process of engaging
a telecommunications provider in the US while keeping the project
on time and on budget."
The project cost around $1 million and was completed
successfully after a 12-month network redesign and implementation.
Logicalis now manages the IP WAN network for Transurban’s
Australian and US offices and maintains 80 network devices around
Australia. The network redesign included:
- Four Cisco 6500 series routers located in Victoria
- Four Cisco 4500 series routers located in Victoria
- 15 Cisco 2800 series routers located in Australia and the US30
Cisco 3750 switches located in Australia and the US
Benefits
“Since the changeover to the Logicalis network, we have
seen significant increases in network performance and much less
down time,” said Sharkey. “Our internal stakeholders are extremely
pleased as the network upgrade has allowed us to implement new
Microsoft Exchange, file and print servers. These give us better
processing times, which would not have been possible on the
previous network.
“We have experienced significantly less down time with the
Logicalis network and reduced our network operation and management
costs.
“With Logicalis as a partner we know that potential
network issues will be quickly identified and addressed, minimising
any downtime or customer impact. This confidence in our network
partner allows us to continually commit to high levels of customer
service to both our internal and external customers.
“The Logicalis team proved itself to be extremely
accommodating, knowledgeable and helpful during the tricky
negotiation process with the US carrier. Logicalis more than met
our expectations and as a result we are now looking at further
network upgrades to increase traffic and capacity to our US
offices.”
“Now that the network upgrade is complete, we are looking
to maximise the 30 Cisco 3750 edge-WAN devices we have installed
globally, expanding our VoIP and wireless capabilities with the
enhanced routing features on these devices.
“Working closely with Logicalis, we will be growing our
business using WAN acceleration, allowing more consistent and
faster access to shared files and resources from any office around
the world. With WAN acceleration our business can do more with our
network, without putting additional strain on our
infrastructure.”
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