Challenge Support educational excellence through the deployment of a stable, highly reliable, high-performance network, to enable multiple on-site business and research applications and online education Solution An Avaya* data network solution that utilizes a highly redundant and resilient infrastructure with Avaya 8800 Ethernet Routing Switches at the core Value Created Savings: an estimated 20% savings on hardware costs and at least 5% savings on electricity Manageability: back-end updating and maintenance time can be reduced approximately 25% Scalability: current link utilization provides >90% growth capacity; good for at least 7 years On-site mobility for users High performance and throughput: with zero latency, ultra high-speed connections, full virtualization capabilities, redundancy, resiliency, and reliability Bringing our network up to 10 Gigabit has enabled us to take our entire infrastructure to the next level. This is extremely important because, as a top-rated business school, we need to show our students that we re providing the finest technology to help ensure the best education. - Michael Vertefeuille, Chief Operating and Technology Officer, University of Connecticut School of Business * References to Avaya include the Nortel Enterprise business, which was acquired as of December 18, 2009. Avaya technologies enable high throughput and progressive virtualization at the University of Connecticut School of Business Storrs, Connecticut Consistently ranked in the top five percent of public business schools worldwide, the University of Connecticut School of Business strives to be a globally recognized provider of exceptional managerial and business leadership in a dynamic global business context - integrating real-world education, outstanding research and strategic outreach to support their mission: Real world. Real learning. Real impact. Avaya* data and voice solutions have supported educational excellence at the School of Business for nine years. A major infrastructure upgrade utilizing Avaya 8800 Ethernet Routing Switches is now setting the stage for another decade of delivering advanced, proactive technological capabilities. Background: When the University of Connecticut School of Business built its new research and learning center at the Storrs campus in 2001, they wanted the best possible data network infrastructure available at the time. After studying options from a number of vendors, they chose a platform built on Avaya technology because they felt it could provide the flexibility and robust capabilities that would be needed for future growth. Michael Vertefeuille, Chief Operating and Technology Officer, stated simply, At that time, no other network could do what we needed. In 2004, the School established a new financial research and learning center, primarily for graduate studies, in downtown Hartford. Their existing Avaya infrastructure enabled them to scale up to a new level of technology that includes a research trading floor and an Avaya Communication Server 1000 VoIP telephone system. CASE STUDY 1
avaya.com In 2010, the University has begun in the areas of: Virtualized functionality, high performance, and improved scalability Speed and throughput The School of Business s new infrastructure Experiential learning is upgrading their network infrastructure in all extremely important for the locations in order to achieve evolving goals School of Business because it allows our students to is based on the Avaya Ethernet Routing graduate with more real Virtualization world experience than they would get just going to the Consolidation classroom. That translates Mobility to our need to provide an infrastructure that can support essentially every application they will use in business... At this point, with our with the School s extensive portfolio of Microsoft products Continued support for the most advanced proven reliability of the ERS 8600 with the enhanced virtualized functionality and improved scalability that a new generation of software delivers. It is designed to optimize a progressive move to highly virtualized networking, while at the same time retaining the heritage features of non-stop, selfhealing networking and no single point of failure in any of the network components. business, research, and financial With redundant fiber connections, applications redundant power supplies, redundant power switches, and dual CPUs for high-availability Avaya networking solution, Looking ahead to achieve our goals mode, our level of reliability for business we feel confident that we needed to have 10 Gigabit Ethernet continuity is absolutely huge, Vertefeuille capabilities to support our extensive commented. (For details, please see the virtualization clusters and iscsi SAN generation of applications Systems and Applications chart at the end infrastructure, Vertefeuille explained. For of this case study.) that will be required for me, making a move to the new switch fabric we can handle each new several years to come.. Michael Vertefeuille, Chief Operating and Technology Officer, University of Connecticut School of Business 2 Expanded integration/convergence Switch 8800, which consolidates the field- and chassis with Avaya was almost a nonissue since we had nine straight years of uninterrupted throughput with our Avaya ERS 8600 switch, and not a single failure. That kind of record is very hard to beat. Solid, stable infrastructure to help ensure business continuity The School of Business requires high reliability and high capacity in order to support 1,600 live data jacks and 14 classrooms, close to 2,500 students utilizing
avaya.com personal laptops and desktop stations, and 150 faculty and staff at the Storrs location (where the main data center resides); and 1,400 live data jacks, 14 classrooms, 1,500 graduate students, a full financial mock trading floor, and an Avaya Communication Server 1000 VoIP telephone system at the Hartford location. Vertefeuille explained the utilization benefits of an extremely high capacity-high reliability network: Student endeavors tend to be very bandwidth-intensive. We are steadily increasing our portfolio of online education and use of online video applications between faculty and students. We handle extensive research between high-performance clusters, and a lot of database work. Our entire infrastructure is consolidated, so we needed much higher bandwidth in a smaller area rather than multiple links in disparate areas. Virtualization. Vertefeuille continued, The principal reason for our upgrading the infrastructure was to handle our evolving movement toward virtualization. We are virtualizing just about everything we can; so, whereas before we had 47 servers with multiple CPUs, memory, power supplies, hard drives, network connections, and other underutilized resources, now we have fewer servers with connections to our SAN infrastructure via our ERS 8800 core. Now, all the I/O data goes to the network. For that we need zero latency and 9 nines reliability, which the ERS 8800 technology can give us. The School of Business is already engaged in a desktop virtualization deployment, whereby they are gradually placing faculty, 3
avaya.com staff, and students on virtualized desktops using a thin client and remote desktop sessions. Vertefeuille commented, We re using a virtualization product, and when you consolidate at this level, your network becomes paramount; so we really need to have that solid connection to the core and to the network. We re building our own cloud that will enable users to sit down at any workstation anywhere. They are not locked to a geographic location, so they gain mobility. Another benefit of virtualization is the green aspect we ultimately can consolidate cooling, heating, and electronic needs. We expect to save about 5% on electricity whenever we remove a traditional computer and put in a thin client, plus heat is reduced, with less need for cooling. Highly-scalable platform enables excellence in education. Scalability is also an important benefit for the School of Business. With the new Avaya 8800 Ethernet Routing Switch technology, we expect to be well set up for the next decade, Vertefeuille said. Bringing our network up to 10 Gigabit has enabled us to take our entire infrastructure to the next level. This is extremely important because, as a top-rated business school, we need to show our students that we re providing the finest technology as an enabler to assure the best education. One of the distinctive aspects of experiential education at the University of Connecticut School of Business is the offering of Accelerator Programs for all MBA students and some undergraduates. Participation in an Accelerator semester involves doing hands-on work in at least one of the Accelerator areas, which include finance, innovation, edgelab, SCOPE (community outreach), and the student-managed fund. An Accelerator focuses on real-life research and projects, often in conjunction with participating companies. Experiential learning is extremely important for the School of Business because it allows our students to graduate with more real world experience than they would get just going to the classroom, Vertefeuille explained. That translates to our need to provide an infrastructure that can support essentially every application they will use in business including Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server, Exchange Server, Office Communications Suite, Oracle, Crystal Ball, all of the main financial software packages, IBM SPSS Statistics, SAS, VMware (our virtualization system), and much, much, more. Right now our link utilization averages only 1-2%, providing growth capacity of more than 90%, and this capacity will not be exceeded for at least 7 years; so at this point, with our Avaya networking solution, we feel confident that we can handle each new generation of applications that will be required for several years to come. Vertefeuille added, The School also has a strong focus on providing quality online education. For example, our online MS in Accounting program is ranked among the top programs in the country. It is an extremely competitive 7-month term of study involving brief periods in residence. Each student completes the program asynchronously online with a faculty member and the other students. The program makes heavy use of multi-media, course management software, web applications, network communications, and other technologies. Again, for the online programs, we really need a solid, stable infrastructure to keep all of these systems running 24x7, since our students are all over the world and may be working at any time. The Avaya network supports this program extremely well, and it has the capacity to handle our future online education plans as well. Savings on equipment and troubleshooting time While the requirements of educational excellence take top priority in the University s concerns, there are also important savings and efficiencies inherent in their network upgrade. The Avaya ERS 8800 incorporates hardware-level robustness together with enhanced fault-tolerant Switch Fabric and CPU functions. It supports the Split Multi-Link Trunking protocol to allow for resilient Switch Clustering; simplifying network design, equipment requirements, and delivering superior performance and reliability. 4
avaya.com As Vertefeuille explains it, In hard dollars, we estimate we will save capital expenditure costs on a yearly basis probably about 20% on hardware costs by extending the refresh cycle. Another significant savings is the response time for technology problems the time needed to get someone back up and running, which comes down dramatically through virtualization. The virtual desktop is stored in a central location and is backed up in three locations and in a cluster that is replicated over geographic locations; so as long as that doesn t go down, all users need to do is go to another station and log in. What someone would have once called their computer becomes just a box that receives the image from the server. Because it doesn t have a hard drive in it, there are no moving parts, so the failure rate on that equipment is extremely low. Vertefeuille mentioned that his team can also save a lot of time and energy when it comes to patching machines, because patching a virtual image is as simple as patching the master image for that machine. Even with managed desktop environments with remote upgrading, support can be time-consuming, but now we anticipate that the backend time for upgrading and maintenance of machines will be trimmed by approximately 25%. Where the value becomes apparent... Vertefeuille concluded, Clearly we have an outstanding network, which will help us to enable the educational experiences we are seeking to provide to our students for years to come. The technological aspects of any system are vitally important, but just as important to me, as a customer, is our relationship with the vendor. The close connection that has been formed with our local Avaya team is where the value becomes apparent. Whenever we need them, they are there. Period. 5
Learn More For more information on how Avaya Intelligent Communications can take your enterprise from where it is to where it needs to be, contact your Avaya Account Manager or a member of the Avaya Connect channel partner program, or access other collaterals by clicking on Resource Library at www.avaya.com. SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS Hartford Campus: Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 (14) Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5698TFD-PWR Dual 10GbE MLT (6) Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5650TD Edge to Core: Dual 10GbE Distributed Multilink Trunks Avaya Communication Server 1000E Avaya Meeting Exchange (beta May 2010) All statements in this Case Study were made by Michael Vertefeuille, Chief Operating and Technology Officer, University of Connecticut School of Business. Storrs Campus: Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 (20) Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5698TFD-PWR Dual 10GbE MLT (4) Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5650TD Edge to Core: Dual 10GbE Distributed Multilink Trunks ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Founded in 1941, the University of Connecticut School of Business has evolved into one of the most comprehensive business schools in the nation, offering academic programs at the bachelors, masters, doctorate and advanced certificate levels, in five Connecticut locations Storrs, Hartford, Stamford, Torrington, and Waterbury. The School of Business has a strong reputation for high quality research and academic programs in Accounting, Finance, Management, Marketing, and Operations and Information Management. Continuously accredited by AACSB International since 1958, it ranks in the top 5% of business schools worldwide; in the top 50 of all business schools nationally (US News & World Report, 2010); #12 among all US public business schools (Forbes, 2009); and #16 globally for return on investment (BusinessWeek, 2008). ABOUT AVAYA Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com. 2011 Avaya Inc. All Rights Reserved. Avaya and the Avaya Logo are trademarks of Avaya Inc. and are registered in the United States and other countries. All trademarks identified by, TM or SM are registered marks, trademarks, and service marks, respectively, of Avaya Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Avaya may also have trademark rights in other terms used herein. References to Avaya include the Nortel Enterprise business, which was acquired as of December 18, 2009. 07/11 DN5251-01