FIELD REPORT
NETWORK ENGINEER CHRIS TRUSLER
MMC Corp: Constructive Connections A construction services company uses a fiber ELAN to build its future.
If I need more bandwidth, I can get it quickly—in days, not months. –Chris Trusler
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THE CHALLENGE:
THE SOLUTION:
MMC Corp, a holding company made up of construction services brands, is a busy place. It has eight divisions, which handle everything from HVAC installation to general contracting. It also operates up to 60 construction sites at any given time. To streamline communications, MMC Corp wanted data from all locations to flow across a single network. To maintain data security, it needed a dedicated, private network. It also required the flexibility to add and remove locations on the network with ease. Network engineer Chris Trusler considered a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) system, but its cost, complexity, and inability to scale quickly were deterrents. Trusler and IT director Jim Scales asked Time Warner Cable Business Class (TWCBC) what it could offer.
Today, all MMC Corp offices are connected over a TWCBC Ethernet Local Area Network (ELAN); bandwidth varies from10 Mbps to 500 Mbps, based on the number of employees at the location. In addition, job site trailers can access a Virtual Private Network (VPN) via 15x2 Mbps Business Internet access. On the corporate side, the service connects the offices to MMC Corp’s data center, which is equipped with 1 Gbps of data throughput. This bandwidth ensures that there is no latency, even if many of the company’s 1,200 employees are simultaneously using email or accessing file servers. The ELAN solution also gives MMC Corp a fiber infrastructure, which rarely has problems (such as packet delay and “jitter”) that affect time-sensitive applications.
Fall 2015
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