The typical enterprise is burdened with the constant maintenance required to keep the network operational and secure. Multiple platforms and applications are required for each site and are supported by large IT staffs with special skills. Flattening this infrastructure allows enterprises and other large organizations an effective means to cut costs, increase security, and simplify application deployment.

Challenges

Multi-site organizations typically build distributed networks at each geographically separate site, meaning network resources such as routers, firewalls and servers must be distributed to every site and sit on every subnet. Fully distributed networks require greater numbers of IT staff, are more difficult to keep secure, and complicate new application rollouts.

Solution

The answer is to simplify and consolidate network resources to fewer locations. And it's easier than it sounds. You can collapse your network into fewer data centers, and flatten the overall network structure to simplify operations. In fact, the simplicity of your network will become its greatest strength. Using optical Ethernet in place of routed architectures you creates WAN connections as reliable as the Local Area Network (LAN)—transforming today's complex enterprise network to tomorrow's competitive advantage.

Ciena's offerings

Optical Ethernet switching and transport solutions from Ciena provide the high speed and low latency required to support network simplification. With dedicated 10 Gb/s high-speed optical Wide Area Network (WAN) links running between sites, users can connect sites hundreds of miles away with the highest performance. Using Ciena's unique VirtualWire technology, the same WAN link can carry both your LAN and storage traffic yet keep them completely separate with no bandwidth contention or complicated QoS tunneling. In addition, Ciena’s flexible platforms allow enterprise customers to take advantage of emerging Ethernet technologies such as Metro-Ethernet and services including EVPLs and EVCs.

Benefits

• Reduce hardware costs with fewer devices required and increase performance through reduced routing
• Increase security with an isolated network versus a shared, less-secure infrastructure
• Simplify application deployment by centralizing servers and eliminating the need to roll applications out at every site