Case study: Pickfords bonded ADSL and leased line

Storage firm increases data connectivity with bonded ADSL and reduces costs with leased line MPLS alternative from Managed Communications.

When Pickfords needed to cut IT expenditure in order to focus on more investment for stock, but not downsize on performance, Managed Communications were able to help.

Managed Communications was provided with the following project outline:

“The solution must offer ‘always available', business-only site-to-site tunnels between head office and all Pickfords' UK sites. All site-to-site data must traverse an uncontended private core, not the internet.

We currently run a very low latency-dependant application and therefore require a highly resilient and reliable connection.

• All sites will be able to access the internet independently if desired.
• All services must include 24/7 Telephone technical support as we are a 24/7 business.
• All hardware must arrive pre-configured and be fully managed.
• The solution must offer significant cost savings to Pickfords Ltd and not compromise in terms of bandwidth speed what we current leased lines we have."

Nigel Black, one of the key account managers at Managed Communications was able to fill all of these criteria by utilising our flagship product Bonded ADSL.

Business Requirement Summary

Our understanding of the requirement was that they used an MPLS network between all offices and depots. A shift in business focus meant that this network needed to be more centralised rather than fully meshed. As a consequence, there is no longer the need to have the same levels of expenditure, and a reduction in cost without a drop in bandwidth would be welcome.

All servers would now be located at head office with all technical staff, and all branches needed to be able to access these at the same speed as their current leased line service (2Mbps).

In short, 26x 2Mbps leased lines into an MPLS network needed to be replaced with similar bandwidth, but with a much chunkier connection centrally.

Business Solution

Managed Communications could offer a solution for their needs. We proposed to replace the MPLS network with a private VPN solution.

After choosing a suitable 100Mbps fibre connection in the central office, we are free to concentrate on the satellite sites.

Connectivity

At the 25 sites which currently have a single 2Mbps leased line service, we proposed to migrate the connections to 3x Bonded ADSL Max Premium. This immediately increases download speeds tenfold, keeps the upload speed the same, and yet, as it is run over copper instead of fibre, allows us to offer a more cost-effective solution.

Five of the above locations (Bath, Horsham, Sheffield, York and Norwich) are in a suitable location to receive a faster Bonded ADSL2 connection. This further increases bandwidth without increasing cost. Other sites had ADSL2 enabled however were too far away from the telephone exchange to receive a faster service than what Bonded ADSL Max Premium can provide.

By utilising ADSL Bonding and ADSL2 Bonding, Pickfords have been able to add flexibility to their portfolio of internet options. A leased line must be in a fixed location for the entire length of the contract. Not only can all bonded DSL flavours (Business ADSL, ADSL2+, SDSL etc) achieve the bandwidth that leased lines offer, but customers can choose not to be tied into long term contracts or can even move the service to a new site as requirements dictate.

Combining this with auto failover between the bonded lines means there is no longer a requirement for the 512k ADSL backup lines which were installed alongside the 2Mbps fibre leased lines. A single range of static IPs, rather than a range for each ADSL Bonded circuit, means the solution is vastly superior for VPN traffic than an ADSL load balancing solution.

We required a total of 3x telephone (PSTN) lines made available to us for the 3x bonded ADSL solution. We are also able to provide these if they are unavailable on an individual basis, allowing for all internet and site to site connectivity solutions to be looked after by the award winning Managed Communications support team, and be backed up with a 99.9% SLA.

Site-to-Site Closed User Group VPN

As experts in VPN solutions as well as internet connectivity, Managed Communications were also able to replace the MPLS solution of Pickfords with a fully managed Closed User Group VPN service.

Huge time and cost savings were made as internet traffic was no longer stifling important data traffic. Bonded ADSL allowed for a vastly increased download speed which ensured the day-to-day running of the business was not impacted when an important file was transferred or backed up.

This allows for an optimum compromise between branded reliable performance and cost.

Summary

Included in the proposed solution as standard:

• 24/7 telephone technical support
• Full pro-active monitoring with a web front end
• All services run across our own uncontended private network which operates as a result at a lower latency
• Reliable and always available - backed up by a 99.9% SLA for good measure
• Dedicated technical support and account management

Fast Install

Standard lead time for installation was 15 - 20 working days, from point of order to the service being live and operational. All equipment is managed and arrived pre-configured and fully tested, and is then backed up by the ADSL bonding specialist assigned to your deployment. No need to wait 90 days while you have to suffer with your old connection. We can even reduce this using our Fast Track service.

Wide Coverage

Our UK xDSL bonding infrastructure allows the provisioning of a Managed Communications bonding device at a customer's location. From that we are able to establish multiple sessions over multiple links and present a single bonded internet connection to the LAN. Due to the fact it is our own network and not tied to a particular LLU platform, we can provide our service to every telephone exchange in the United Kingdom ideal if your own business also covers the whole of Great Britain.

Technical Expertise

Our technical support team for ADSL bonding, leased line alternatives and private VPNs are experts and answer the phone within three rings. This is backed up by a 99.9% service level agreement. Concentrate on your own business operation rather then spending hours managing an MPLS or Wide Area Network leave that up to us.

Please have a look at our relevant bonded ADSL and managed VPN websites for more info on how Managed Communications can increase your bandwidth and cut costs using our Bonded ADSL and leased line MPLS alternatives.