As companies’ digital needs grow and their IT environments become more complex, optimizing their data center operations becomes increasingly essential. Data center networking solutions provide that optimization.
Global spending on data center systems reached $179 billion in 2020 and could rise to $237 billion by 2023, according to a recent study. With that much money going toward these systems, companies must ensure they make the most of their investments. Failing to optimize them could result in costly downtime, slow speeds, loss of customers, and security threats.
Data center networking solutions help by managing resources through load balancing, analytics, software-defined networking (SDN), and other technological improvements.
These seven case studies demonstrate that these managed services enable greater automation, uptime, security, and more.
T-Systems
T-Systems is one of the world’s largest providers of digital services, producing telecommunications solutions for many of the Fortune 100. As the company expanded, it needed to consolidate and simplify its data center infrastructure while scaling its performance and availability up.
Before partnering with Jupiter Networks for data center networking, T-Systems had 45 separate data centers across the globe. After implementing Jupiter’s solutions, the company had just 11.
Reducing IT sprawl was only the first step in T-Systems’s data center networking journey. They also had to provide more services and uptime with fewer systems, which required moving away from traditional data center architecture. Software-defined networking and automation proved to be the keys to overcoming that challenge.
With an SDN system and automation platform in place, T-Systems could balance network demands faster and more efficiently. These technologies gave T-Systems’s data centers the ability to predict shifting demand and adapt accordingly while minimizing hardware resources.
Industry: Technology
Data center networking solution: Juniper Networks
Outcomes:
- Reduced global data centers from 45 to 11
- Substantially improved network performance and reliability
- Enabled new digital services like multicloud
Kaleida Health
Kaleida Health, the largest healthcare provider in Western New York, serves more than one million patients across five hospitals annually. As the medical industry has become increasingly digital, Kaleida’s IT infrastructure quickly became outdated and insufficient.
With 13,000 users and 30,000 endpoints, Kaleida needed a considerable data center solution in 2019. Some of the provider’s existing systems had also been in place for over a decade. Upgrading was crucial, but it would be costly at this scale, so Kaleida needed to find the most cost-effective solution possible.
Automation was an ideal step forward, as it provides an immediate return on investment (ROI) through improved efficiency and error reduction. Cisco enabled this automation through an SDN solution that balanced resources between Kaleida’s two data centers. Using more flexible, software-based resources also helped minimize costs while maximizing functionality.
Industry: Health care
Data center networking solution: Cisco
Outcomes:
- Reduced technology costs by millions of dollars each year
- Improved IT infrastructure monitoring, management, security, and automation
- Enabled the creation of an innovation center for testing new health care technologies
Volkswagen Financial Services
Volkswagen is one of the most recognizable names in the automotive industry, and its financial management subsidiary is similarly massive. VW Financial Services operates in 48 markets and manages more than 16,000 employees, leaving it with a lot of data to handle.
As consumers have become more accustomed to digital services, Volkswagen knew it needed to digitize rapidly. That included flexible payment options and a faster, fairer application process.
Volkswagen had three main concerns for their new contract management platform: flexibility, availability, and security. The company also faced strict data regulations from the German government. Data center networking provider VMware met these needs by shifting the company to a more agile, secure container-based environment.
Containers provide more organization and transparency than other cloud environments, helping VW meet its regulatory and security needs. Using a managed service provider to handle its data center operations also gave it the efficiency it needed to focus on its growing clientele.
Industry: Financial management
Data center networking solution: VMware
Outcomes:
- Enabled the creation of a new digital contract management platform
- Simplified compliance with data privacy regulations
- Provided the flexibility to expand into new markets
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Data center networking can help companies in entirely different industries as well. For example, the education sector manages vast amounts of data across large and distributed environments. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, with roughly 1,700 students and rapidly expanding digital infrastructure, turned to data networking to help in this area.
SMCM uses virtual infrastructure across its campus to help meet the shifting needs of different departments and students. This enables greater flexibility and lower maintenance costs, but it also requires complex networking considerations and can introduce reliability concerns.
Data center networking solutions let SMCM capitalize on newer hardware and automate network management tasks. As a result, they can balance loads and distribute resources more effectively, ensuring every department gets what they need with minimal input. The new network architecture also helps eliminate vulnerabilities that would jeopardize uptime.
Industry: Education
Data center networking solution: Data Networks
Outcomes:
- Replaced aging equipment to better support virtual infrastructure and enable future growth
- Eliminated single points of failure, increasing availability
- Significant increase in virtual machine throughput
Kansas City International Airport
Airports face similar challenges to college campuses regarding data volumes and network complexity. Consequently, businesses like Kansas City International Airport can also use data center networking to modernize their networks and provide more value to their customers.
Before turning to data center networking, KCI had more than 50 physical servers on-premises, some of which were over a decade old. This aging, complex infrastructure introduced heating and cooling concerns and network inefficiencies and jeopardized passenger data through an ineffective backup system.
Through data center networking, KCI virtualized much of its infrastructure. This reduced energy and temperature-related concerns and made it easier to consolidate them for easier management and automation. Similarly, it found it could test and deploy new tools faster, including a more reliable backup system. The airport could then ensure its systems run faster and more securely, providing a better customer experience.
Industry: Aviation
Data center networking solution: World Wide Technology
Outcomes:
- Virtualized 95% of its servers
- Eliminated temperature concerns in on-premises servers
- Enabled rapid application testing and deployment
Raiffeisen Bank România
The financial sector is another industry with considerable concerns about data security and network uptime. Romania’s Raiffeisen Bank manages two million clients and 5,000 employees but faced a substantial challenge in providing efficient, leading digital services. Data center networking was a crucial part of achieving this goal.
Raiffeisen needed to serve 650,000 digital customers through its online banking platform and support 400 locations and 900 ATMs. They implemented an SDN solution through their data center networking provider to balance these digital concerns.
The SDN answer made it easier to manage shifting demands between the banks’ various locations, digital platforms, and ATMs. It also provided more scalability, enabling easier growth in the future as Raiffeisen attracts more customers.
SDN’s centralization also enables higher security. When it’s easier to map out the network and isolate systems, it’s easier to find and respond to potential threats faster. Considering how cyberattacks are more costly in banking than in any other industry, that’s a critical advantage.
Industry: Banking
Data center networking solution: Datanet
Outcomes:
- Reduced manual operating time by 30%
- Considerably reduced diagnostics and problem-solving time
- Eliminated vulnerabilities from human error and simplified the network segmentation process, ensuring higher security
AS Colour
Data center networking can also provide needed upgrades for Industry 4.0 applications. AS Colour, a garment manufacturer operating in four countries, realized it needed more reliable, high-performing wireless networks to support digital transformation across warehouses.
Embracing Industry 4.0 typically means implementing connected devices and automated systems. These interconnected systems need fast, reliable, secure, and flexible wireless networks to reach their full potential, and data center networking provides that. SDN, virtualization, and network automation helped balance demands and increase visibility to run these environments effectively.
AS Colour now uses data center networking to monitor device performance across its warehouses and manufacturing centers. Virtualization lets IT staff view ongoing network activity in real-time from a central location and quickly respond to disruptions. Automation in the network enables automation in the factory, as adaptive network balancing lets AS Colour implement more interconnected, autonomous machines.
Industry: Manufacturing
Data center networking solution: Extreme Networks
Outcomes:
- High-capacity Wi-Fi 6 networks enabled greater connectivity and automation, improving productivity
- Visibility across multiple facilities through a single pane
- Reduced network risks through enhanced visibility and automation
