RCN Metro Optical Networks

Custom Private Optical Network

A financial institution makes a no-risk investment in a custom private optical network.

Challenge

A financial institution with multiple campuses throughout New England was looking for a better way to connect their locations and carrier POPs. Their current network was made up of SONET rings and circuits provided by multiple carriers. Expensive and hard to scale, they also learned that using multiple providers didn’t afford them the level of diversity they thought it would, since many of these carriers delivered service along the same routes.

What they needed was a private network to provide true diversity. One that would be flexible, enabling them to choose the right service providers. Additionally, it needed to be scalable and expandable so that they could increase their bandwidth as demand arose, and have the ability to add future locations and applications.

Solution

As the RCN Metro Optical Networks account team began to look at the needs of this financial institution, it became evident that a Private Optical Network would provide the flexibility they needed. RCN Metro Optical Networks was able to design, build, and manage a SONET network that not only connected their multiple campuses, but also connected them to their carriers. Scalable and cost-effective, this solution was ideal because it would grow with the institution as needed.

Benefits

• Diversity – Utilizing our unique ROWs, RCN Metro Optical Networks was able to provide the financial institution with a network that was truly diverse
• Cost-Effective – The RCN Metro Optical Networks solution provided more functionality and allowed the financial institution to reduce their costs by more than 50%
• Scalable – This network will quickly scale in order to continue to meet this customer’s bandwidth requirements
• Carrier Neutral – Because RCN Metro Optical Networks has connections to multiple carriers and most major POPs throughout New England, the financial institution can decide which carrier they want to connect to on a location-by-location basis

Gigabit Ethernet

A new Gigabit Ethernet network offers a financial services company more, for a lot less.

Challenge

A financial services company in New England was in need of increased bandwidth. Their current network consisted of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and SONET circuits to connect their three locations. While increased bandwidth was a priority, a cost-effective plan was also important.

Solution

Because this company needed dedicated connectivity between locations, their current ATM/SONET network setup was determined unnecessary. The RCN Metro Optical Networks account team ascertained that a Gigabit Ethernet network between their locations would prove to be a more cost-effective solution while quadrupling the bandwidth between locations. Additionally, the elimination of the ATM gear from their network saved approximately $100,000 per year in ATM service contracts.

Benefits

Allows them to eliminate a layer out of their network

• Gives them a lower overall cost of ownership
• Lowers operating expenses
• Eliminates the need for ATM/SONET experts on staff

Scalable interface

• Eliminates truck rolls
• Speeds bandwidth upgrades

Customer was familiar with the protocol since they used it in their LAN

Disaster Recovery

Smart planning and a Gigabit Ethernet network help a financial services company design a backup strategy.

Challenge

A customer in the financial services industry was looking to relocate their backup data center further away from their main headquarters and outside of a Tier 1 city in order to improve resiliency.

At the same time, the company wanted to design a backup solution with more than one way to access the backup database – in case of circuit failure.

Solution

RCN Metro Optical Networks proposed and executed a plan to design, build, and manage multiple physically diverse Gigabit Ethernet circuits between headquarters and the backup data center. This included multiple unprotected Gigabit Ethernet circuits, each physically diverse from one another. This way the customer could load balance the traffic between the two circuits. In the event either circuit went down, they would still be able to transmit all of their data to the backup location.

Benefits

• Diversity - By purchasing both circuits from the same vendor, diversity was ensured
• Transparency - Since the service offering is transparent, RCN Metro Optical Networks doesn’t manipulate the customer’s data
• Cost-Effective - Gigabit Ethernet allowed them to eliminate the ATM/SONET layer out of their network