Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions and services, was selected over incumbent Cisco. Its VSP 7000, a future-ready Ethernet switching platform specifically designed for Top-of-Rack (ToR) server aggregation in high-performance data centres, has helped Dairy Crest to transform its IT environment, consolidating its ageing, isolated infrastructure and reducing back-up times for business critical systems by 50 per cent.
It is expected that a second data centre will be mirrored later this year, after which Dairy Crest expects to significantly reduce the risk of data loss in the event of a disaster scenario. This is thanks to the massive virtual backplane bandwidth – up to 5.12 terabits, perfect for latency-sensitive server-to-server traffic – delivered by the VSP 7000. As a result, key reporting, financial, and supply chain platforms are protected and so is the overall operational efficiency of the business and its 6,500 staff.
This is the latest win for Avaya in EMEA, where Avaya’s multi-national offerings are helping to garner new cross-border, multi-country deals.
“We knew we had limited disaster recovery capabilities and that we were potentially exposed. Our production systems were protected but we had limited cover across key reporting, financial platforms and supply chain planning. If we lost these systems the business would run at a significantly reduced efficiency. Since implementing the Avaya solution we’ve seen our back-up capabilities improved, reducing times by 50 per cent.” Zahed Mannan, Technical Architect, Dairy Crest
“Dairy Crest is a business used to adapting to and capitalising on changing market dynamics. With the Avaya Virtual Service Platform in place, it has an IT infrastructure that mirrors this flexibility and robustness. Now Dairy Crest can focus on running its business better, safe in the knowledge that the management and back-up of disparate and aging networks is in hand. David Scutt, EMEA Data & Video Sales Leader, Avaya