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8/6/2019 Issue1 Final
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Creating a Fit forPurpose NetworkArchitecture
Featuring research from
Issue 1
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Avayas Data Solutions is trusted by many o the most prestigiouscompanies in the world. This trust is made evident by the act that
Avaya is the only company to ship both 100 million voice lines and
100 million data ports, has the second largest core switch installed
base at 2.7 million ports and has the most advanced line o stacka
switches in the industry having sold over 22 million ports in the la
our years.
With Avayas data solutions, we can help enterprises more easily
adapt to business needs by delivering immediate and long term
value. With solutions that provide seven times more resiliency, 20
times better perormance, 40 percent more energy eciency and
approximately 50 percent better total cost o ownership, customers
can count on Avaya to improve the value they derive rom theirtechnology investments.
Steve Bandrowczak, Vice President and General Manager,
Avaya Data Solutions
Avayas vision or the enterprisecalls or a new level o
synergy between people,
the collaborative real-time
applications they use, and the
underlying, enabling network.
A key building block or this
vision is the oundational
network. As real-time
communications continue
the evolution to IP, the data
network becomes completely
integrated into the delivery
o communications-enabledbusiness services and mission
critical business applications.
Avayas Fit or Purpose strategy is resonating in the market.
Customers are telling us they want unique solutions that are tailored
and best-designed to support their specic communications
requirements. Todays CIOs are ocused on saving money, driving
new revenue streams, increasing the loyalty o their customers
and creating competitive dierentiation. Our go-to-market strategy
is ocused on addressing these needs with some o the most
competitive products in the industry.
Introduction
Creating a Fit or Purpose Network Architecture is published by Avaya. Editorial supplied by Avaya is independent o Gartner analysis. All Gartner research is 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and/or its Afliates. All rights
reserved. All Gartner materials are used with Gartners permission and in no way does the use or publication o Gartner research indicate Gartners endorsement o Avayas products and/or strategies. Reproductio
and distribution o this publication in any orm without prior written permission is orbidden. The inormation contained herein has been obtained rom sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warrantie
as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy o such inormation. Gartner shall have no liability or errors, omissions or inadequacies in the inormation contained herein or or interpretations thereo. The reader
assumes sole responsibility or the selection o these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.
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other changes are also transorming theenvironment in which enterprise networks
operate:
IT departments are under greater pressure
to account or ROI in their expendituresa
trend that accelerated dramatically with
the economic downturn in 2008.
There is a greater recognition of the
economic cost and environmental impact
o IT energy consumption. IT solutions that
are energy ecient are here to stay.
A huge generational shift is taking place
in todays workorce: as the Baby Boomers
retire, their successors are bringing new
expectations concerning IT availability,
perormance and fexibility. This will usher
in a quantum shit rom the traditional
network to one driven by and built or real-
time, multimedia, always-on, omnipresent,
multi-platorm communications.
Individually, any one o these trends would
have a major impact on network strategy.
Collectively, they represent a signicant shitin todays enterprise network operating
environment.
2. THE CHALLENGE FACING GENERALPURPOSE ENTERPRISE NETWORKS
Because todays general purpose network
architectures were not designed or the
demands o Unied Communications, the
traditional tactics or enhancing network
perormanceadding more hardware,
upgrading to aster processors, increasing
bandwidthcan actually intensiy problems,
such as server creep and congurationdrit.
The net eect o these and other issues is
higher network TCO (Total Cost o Ownership).
Taking an inherently inecient, over-
engineered approach to network challenges
absorbs more resources, delivering less and
INTRODUCTION
Todays enterprise network needs to be a
highly ocused resource capable o providing
a mobile and diverse workorce with ecient,
eective access to the tools and applications
that drive productivity. Because traditional,
general purpose network architectures were
not designed to cost-eectively address this
new world o Unied Communications, new
network strategies are needed. Avaya is
meeting the challenge with Fit or Purpose
inrastructure capabilities that combine
perormance on the most demanding
real-time applications with compellingeconomics.
1. THE NEW ENVIRONMENT FORENTERPRISE NETWORKS
A sea change is taking place in enterprise
networks. The growing use o the network
or real-time communications and
collaborationUnied Communications
requires a dramatic change in network
architecture.
The data output by digital devices, such as
PCs, servers, mobile phones, scanners,supercomputers, and cameras, is growing
exponentially. Based on Moores Law,
we can expect the digital universe to
double every eighteen months, i not
aster, placing a heavy strain on real-time
networks.1
A huge part of the increase in
network trac is the result o real-
time applicationsVoIP, personal
videoconerencing, WiFithat are critical
to enterprise perormance.
All of thisdata, applications, presence
capabilities, etc.must be made
available to an ever growing mobile
workorce.
This transition to Unied Communications
is not taking place in a vacuum. A host o
less perormance while incurring more andmore expense. Enterprises that continue to
rely on these general purpose architectures
will nd themselves at a competitive
disadvantage to enterprises that have made
the shit to what Avaya calls Fit or Purpose
networksnetworks designed or the
realities o todays distributed, collaborative
enterprise.
3. THE FIT FOR PURPOSE ENTERPRISENETWORK
A Fit or Purpose solution is one that
identies the most critical perormancerequirements and delivers the best
possible solution to address the specic
individual needs o todays distributed,
collaborative workorce, meeting the
challenge o delivering real-time access
to communications tools, inormation and
applications.
A Fit or Purpose network inrastructure vs.
a traditional general purpose inrastructure
is like the dierence between a line o
perormance racing cars and a line o
sporty, economical sub-compacts designedor everyday consumers. Both, or example,
have an engine, wheels, brakes and a
steering mechanism. Both are designed
with aerodynamic eciency in mind.
However, the racing car is designed above
all to achieve speed. Everything about it,
not just the perormance o the engine but
the ease with which aulty components
can be swapped out or reueling take
place, is purpose built to save precious
seconds in a competitive environment. The
sporty subcompact, on the other hand, is
designed to optimize its appeal to a marketsegmentspeed is just one actor (and,
given speed limits, not a major one.) A
wide range o vendor-driven and market-
driven actors infuence the design o the
sporty compact, not the least o which is to
repurpose other o-the-shel components
rom the manuacturers product line.
Creating a Fit for Purpose NetworkArchitecture
1http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/
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In the case o todays enterprise networks,most vendors, in eect, take the sporty
compact approach: they start out with
a set o basic building blocks and meet
specic market needs (e.g., real time
communications) by layering on more
architectures and protocols. What results
are solutions that sacrice simplicity and
fexibility and, ultimately, TCO.
In contrast, Avaya has identied what it
sees as the most critical perormance
requirements or todays networks
resiliency, eciency and scalabilityandmade solving those specic challenges the
driving orce behind its portolio o Fit or
Purpose enterprise network solutions.
4. COMPONENTS OF A FIT FOR PURPOSENETWORK ARCHITECTURE
Because there is no single solution to the
challenge o network resiliency, eciency
and scalability, Avaya addresses each
characteristic uniquely.
Here is a quick look at some o the keyarchitectural elements o the Avaya Fit or
Purpose network inrastructure:
Bringing Resiliency to a New Level
Avayas Fit or Purpose approach to resiliency
is based on its Switch Clustering technology
and also by more eectively managing
routine maintenance operations as well
as unplanned outages. These and other
capabilities enable Avaya to deliver up to
seven times better resiliency than the market
share leader, providing uncompromising
end-to-end availability or real-timeapplications such as VoIP.2
Switch clustering: This technology
and architecture, pioneered by Avaya,
essentially virtualizes the network core.
Far superior to the one-size-ts-all,
spanning tree approach, switch clustering
utilizes all network resources regardless
o scale and provides sub-second ailover.
Any disruptions are virtually unnoticeable
to the user sessions do not ail andapplications do not hang.
Managing ailures: I a ailure occurs, a
ailed unit can be disconnected without
any loss o overall application availabil
The Avaya Automatic Unit Replacemen
(AUR) process manages any necessary
downloads and then brings the switch
back online; all o this without any need
or an engineer to provide conguration
management.
Eicient Network PerormanceA good business is run just this side o lea
and mean; a Fit or Purpose network mus
be designed with the same sensibility. Ava
solutions are able to deliver up to 20 times
better perormance with one-third less
equipment through an architecture design
to maximize all resources and investment
eliminating idle or underutilized links,
equipment and even entire architectural
tiers.3
Operating and Technology Ocer at the school, Avaya was
chosen because when the decision had to be made no
other network could do what we needed.
At Coppin State University in Baltimore, the schools
cutting edge IT program goal which is occurring in real
time todayis to make it as easy or a working mother
o our to review class lectures on her iPod touch as it is
or a serviceman in Iraq to complete the coursework and
tests needed or his degree, working rom his barracks
in Baghdad. Coppins technology strategy has won itnumerous awards and plaudits rom U.S. News and World
Report, Network World, EDUCAUSE and others.
INTEGRATED, IMMERSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Leading colleges and universities are doing everything
possible today to oer sophisticated, technology-rich
environments that allow students to immerse themselves
anywhere, anytime in interactive learning experiences. For
the University o Connecticut School o Business and Coppin
State University in Baltimore, a Fit or Purpose Network rom
Avaya is making it possible.
At the University o Connecticut School o Business, it
means an inrastructure that can support essentially
every application its student will use in businessromaccounting programs, to all the major nancial packages
to a mock trading room. The school now has the scalability
it needs or seven years, and achieved immediate
savings in hardware costs, energy, backend updating
and maintenance. According to Michael Verteeuille, Chie
2http://www.avaya.com/usa/topics/avaya-data-networking/3Tolly Test Report: Avaya Data Network Solutions, Perormance, Resiliency and TCO Comparison to Cisco/HP ProCurve Across Network Classes, March, 2010
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Consolidating services: Where it makessense, Avaya consolidates services. The
Avaya Secure Router 4134 can integrate
WAN routing, LAN switching, voice
gateway and a ull-eatured Unied
Communications applications suite in
a single device. Delivering solutions
that require ewer devices provides
consistently higher levels o reliability,
perormance and eciency, ultimately
resulting in lower capital and operating
costs. See TCO Comparison (Figure 1).
Energy eciency: Avayas industry-leading energy eciency delivers
immediate operational savings by
reducing the amount o power that is used
to directly run a given set o equipment,
and also indirectly due to the savings
realized or reduced cooling requirements.
See Power Consumption (Figure 2).
Ecient Management Platorm: Rather
than relying on multiple management
systems that create a dispersed
approach, Avayas network management
consolidates voice, data, wired andwireless management systems in a single
platorm that allows network managers totroubleshoot up to our times aster.
Scalability or Future-Readiness
No individual product can ever be cost-
eectively uture-prooed. Instead a Fit or
Purpose network takes advantage o a
variety o innovationsvirtualized, multi-
device platorms, streamlined architectures,
automatic QoS and role-based securityto
more eectively scale as business demands
evolve and grow, maximizing capacity
utilization, easily accommodating incremental
growth and avoiding unnecessary and costlyork-lit upgrades.
Virtualized multi-device platorms:
Reducing the reliance on separate,
dedicated platorms connected together
in avor o a smaller number o multi-
purpose hosts provides higher levels
o capacity and throughput. The cost o
premium, mission-specic hardware is
avoided. New implementations are now
simply sotware upgrades.
Pay-as-you-grow scalable capacity: TheAvaya approach overcomes the limitations
and constraints acing other systems(such as Token Sharing/Passing systems
or basic Cascading) and instead makes
it possible to scale proportionally as new
switches or ports are added and as the
requirement or more bandwidth grows.
Automatic QoS: Avaya Automatic
Quality-o-Service (QoS) seamlessly
calibrates perormance on end user
devices, servers, applications and
Ethernet Switches, delivering consistent
and optimized QoS that enables the
network to better understand andrespond to latency-sensitive, high-priority
trac in times o network congestion.
WLAN: Current WLAN architectures
whether Distributed/Fat AP
implementations or Centralized/Thin
AP congurationsare not adequate
to support the expanded role WLANs will
play in the overall enterprise network.
Avaya unies wireless and wired
networks using a next-generation, split
plane architecture that oers the best
solution or supporting the new role o802.11n-based WLANs and can achieve
update les. And there are numerous other benets or
ans, Canadiens sta and other stadium personnel: soon
the public will even be able to locate specic acilities
like concessions, boutiques, and an zones with a
positioning location agent on their smart phones, using
the WiFi network. The bottom line: the team that haswon more Stanley Cups than any other ranchise now
has a permanent power play when it comes to mobile,
multimedia communications.
A POWERPLAY IN MOBILE, MULTIMEDIA
COMMUNICATIONS
Some o the greatest players in the history o the game
have cut the ice at the Bell Centre in Quebec, home to
the Montreal Canadiens. So when the stadium decided
it needed better mobile, multimedia communications, it
wanted a solution that was in its league: an Avaya Fit or
Purpose voice and data network emerged as the standoutchoice. Now, thanks to the power and scalability o the
Avaya WLAN, greeters can use wireless handheld scanners
to validate tickets; ood and beverage vendors can use
WiFi point-o-sale devices; reporters and photographers
can use the new wireless service to securely upload and
8/6/2019 Issue1 Final
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up to a 55% reduction in hardware costs
compared to the market share leader.
Role-based Access Control: Many
organizations have created a siloed
security architecture with separate
directory stores and policies or the wired
network, WLAN, VPN, etc. Avaya simplies
network identity management across
the enterprise, providing a consistent,
centralized, role-based access that can
be implemented and managed on a ull
network-wide basis.
5. THE FUTURE OF FIT FOR PURPOSENETWORKS
The era o real-time communications and
collaboration is a game-changer in the
world o enterprise network architecture. The
lessons rom existing networkssuch as
the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic
Winter Games, with its 20-old increase in
bandwidth requirements (Avaya was the
Ocial Converged Network Equipment
Supplier or the Games)clearly show
that the change is not simply incremental.
The demands o resiliency, eciency
and scalability require a paradigm shit
in network design. The need to careully
scrutinize data networking purchases
to maximize ROI and limit TCO will only
increase with the growing UC demand.
Enterprises that are looking to cost-eectively leverage the latest innovations to
drive ongoing productivity and competitive
dierentiation need to take account o the
new environment.
In short, the time is now or networks that
are truly Fit or Purpose.
Learn More
Avayas vision or the enterpriseplug
& play communicationscalls or a new
level o synergy between people; the
collaborative, real-time applications that t
use; and the underlying, enabling networ
The goal is to deliver a consistent, enterpr
class experience, one that supports conte
aware collaboration that is always-on,
simplied and virtualized. A key building
block or this vision is the Fit or Purpose
network. As real-time communications
continue the evolution to IP, the data netwbecomes totally integrated into the deliver
communications enabled business service
in addition to transporting non-real-time,
critical business applications. For more
inormation on the intelligent, cost-saving
capabilities o Avaya Fit or Purpose netwo
solutions, visit www.avaya.com.
Source: A
Sources: Tolly Test Reports: Converged Data Network Solution, Evaluation o Energy Consumption and Projected Costs or a Converged LAN Campus, DataCenter and WAN, March 2010; Ino-Tech: Avaya vs. Cisco: A Comparison o LAN and WAN Inrastructure, April 2010
FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2
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DELIVERING THE FIRST-EVERCONVERGED OLYMPIC ANDPARALYMPIC GAMES NETWORK
Avaya teamed with the Vancouver
Organizing Committee or the 2010 Olympic
and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
and Bell Canada to help deliver a fawless
Games experience or the XXI Olympic and
Paralympic Winter Games.
2010 Winter Games
Avaya was chosen by VANOC as their
Ocial Converged Network Equipment
Supplier or the 2010 Olympic and
Paralympic Winter Games. Avaya supplied
network communications equipment both
directly to VANOC and to Bell Canada, the
exclusive Telecommunications Provider or
the 2010 Winter Games, to build the rst all-
IP converged network at an Olympic Games.
The scenario
On February 12, 2010, some 5,000 athletes
and ocials rom more than 80 countries
were on hand at BC Place Stadium in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada or
the opening ceremonies o the XXI Olympic
Winter Games.
Over the course o the next 17 days, roughly
10,000 media representatives converged on
the Olympic venues to cover seven sports
and 15 disciplines. Over a million guests
arrived at nine competition venues and three
billion television viewers rom 160 countries
were enthralled by the spectacle.
A month later, ten days o Paralympic
Games events were held.
Provisioning a communications inrastructureor such an event is quite clearly an enormous
challenge. The key to delivering seamless
communications or this high-prole event?
Convergence.
Says Justin Webb, Bell Canadas VP or
Olympic Services: When you look at the
communications requirements o the Olympic
and Paralympic Games, where you have a
massive amount o activity in a very short
period o time, the simplest way o doing
this is over a converged IP inrastructure. So
as much as possible, every service oeringthat Bell provides will be put over IP hence
were calling them the All-IP Winter Games.
Completing the jigsaw
In terms o the scope and scale o this
undertaking, VANOCs vice president o
technical inrastructure, Andy Platten, helps
put things into perspective:
I used to work in IT or a very large bank.
The inrastructure that were building or the
Games is roughly the same complexity and
size as what we had deployed there.
But what were doing here or the Games is
like opening all the branches on the same
day, with all the systems working. And it has
to run perectly. Customer transactions cant
go wrong, and we have to balance every
night.
Its an interesting challenge.
Finding a trusted vendor
For both VANOC and Bell Canada, preparing
to deliver this array o services has o courseentailed extremely meticulous preparation,
beginning with the selection o their partners.
We ran a highly competitive process, says
Webb, but what we did that was dierent
was that we went to the market or a partner.
We needed a partner because we dont
yet have nal requirements. We know the
essence o what were going to deliver, but
we dont know exactly, to the last detail,what the nal requirements will be.
It was a very rigorous process. And quite
rankly, Avaya came orward and was
signicantly more committed to partnership,
more committed to the spirit o the Games
and more committed to being fexible in
delivering the solution, even though we
havent yet settled on the nal details.
O VANOCs decision to partner with Avaya,
Platten says, What drew us to Avaya was
the level o commitment they were preparedto make in terms o how engaged they
would be as an organization and the caliber
o the people they were bringing in.
In putting on the Games, says Platten,
only ve percent o the sta comes rom
VANOC 95 percent comes rom partners
and volunteers who need to come together
to orm one team. We needed a vendor we
could put our aith into to be a true partner.
We also liked the act that they gave us
the opportunity to have one end-to-endnetwork. Bell Canada had already selected
them as a partner or wide area networking
and voice. And the jigsaw wasnt complete
until we selected the supplier or the LAN
equipment. Having Avaya be the partner
in that piece o the jigsaw gave us our total
solution. It helps us with interoperability and
it gives us accountability: one team to go to
resolve any issues.
A big win
At the heart o the 2010 Winter Games
network was the Avaya Ethernet RoutingSwitch portolio or a resilient, high-
bandwidth core network that connects all
venues and supporting sites. The Avaya
Ethernet Routing Switch portolio with Power
over Ethernet converged wired and wireless
communications across all locations.
Says Justin Webb, We were very impressed
with the carrier-grade attributes o Avayas
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Ethernet Routing Switches, and the capacities
and densities they oer will save us money
by allowing us to deploy ewer boxes.
Mobility is another key aspect o providing
customer service or the Games. Says Webb:
How ast you can get access to inormation
is important or the customers well be
serving at the Games. When a journalist is on
the bus traveling rom an event in Whistler toone in Vancouver, hes going to want network
access to be able to upload his articles.
To meet this requirement within each Games
venue, a Avaya Wi-Fi network provided
anytime, anywhere access to inormation.
In addition, CDMA cellular acilities were
expanded to deal with the surge in customer
trac expected or the 2010 Games.
Bell Canada also oered network-based
VoIP within all Games sites with the Avaya
Communication Server 2000 Compact and
Avaya IP Phone 1100 Series sets. In act, the
Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic
Winter Games were the rst Games to
exclusively use voice over IP or all event
locations, providing increased customer
service through the ability to provide a single
phone number that can be used seamlesslyacross traditional handsets and computers/
laptops.
As Platten mentioned, securing the network
end-to-end is another strong requirement
or an event with such a high prole. Using
the Avaya Secure Network Access product in
conjunction with Avaya Switched Firewalls
Intrusion Detection Systems and VPN
concentrators ensures the network is not
only protected rom intentional threats ro
the outside but also unintentional threats
rom inside. It ensures that devices that
are being brought rom all over the world
by athletes, ocials and the media are
rigorously checked to ensure they are ree
rom malware and comply with the rigidsecurity policies dened or the 2010 Winte
Games.
Perhaps the most signicant and high prole example o a
Fit or Purpose network was the one Avaya delivered or the
2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver,
Canadathe rst all IP network in Olympic history.
Like the 5,000 Olympic athleteseach one a world
competitor with years o training in his or her sport
Avaya (as the Ocial Converged Network Equipment
Supplier) brought its in-depth experience in real-time
communications to the design and implementation o an
end-to-end network or 15 Games venues and numerousnon-competition sites. These included two data centers,
two media centers, two athlete villages, two ceremonial
sites and the Games headquarters. The network had to
meet Olympic requirements or 100% uptime in a converged
voice/data, wired/WiFi solution that ultimately handled:
4.9B bytes of data traversing the Internet a 20%
increase over the 2008 Summer Games
1.1 trillion web page downloads
10Gb of bandwidth to every venuea 200% increase
over the 2008 Summer Games
1.1B data packets over Bells network
30,000,000 MB: Total mobile data count
65,000,000 mobile text messages sent and received
750,000 calls made from 6,000 landline VoIP phones
The scalability challenge: The Avaya network or the
Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games
demonstrated the unprecedented scalability challengesacing IT managers as more real-time communications and
applications are brought on to the network:
The Avaya network was designed for unanticipated
surge capabilities equivalent to roughly three Super Bowl
Sundays per day or 17 days.
Overall, in the 1.5 years between the 2008 Summer
Olympic Games and the 2010 Winter Games, the
bandwidth requirements grew twenty old.
A FIT FOR PURPOSE NETWORK FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE
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We were looking or a partner who will
be here and who will help us plan, says
Platten in summation. The act that Avaya
will bring their expertise to the table and their
commitment to deliver, on time, whatever we
design and do whatever it needs to make
sure it works seamlessly is a big relie to
us.
Learn More
For more inormation on the intelligent, cost-
saving capabilities o Avaya Fit or Purpose
network solutions, visit www.avaya.com.
Source: Avaya
I used to work in IT or
a very large bank. The
inrastructure that were
building or the Games
is roughly the same
complexity and size as
what we had deployed
there. But what were
doing here or the Gamesis like opening all the
branches on the same
day, with all the systems
working. And it has to
run perectly. Customer
transactions cant go
wrong, and we have to
balance every night. Andy Platten, VP o technicalinrastructure, VANOC
2010 WINTER GAMES A TRULY HYPERCONNECTED EVENT
The inrastructure supporting the 2010 Winter Games will not only have to
support over a million individuals it will also have to accommodate a
myriad o dierent devices, which is why delivering a network designed
or capacity, fexibility, reliability and simplicity is o the utmost importance.
15,000 VoIP phone and fax lines
7,000 mobile phones and 2,000 push-to-talk
5,000 radios
4,000 TV drops
500 Wireless Access Points
BEHIND THE BELL ALL IP GAMES
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games were the
rst Games run on an all-IP converged network. Previous Games have
eatured at least our purpose- built networks or voice, data, video and
broadcast services.
WHY IP?
Increased fexibility: Throughout such a dynamic event, the network
needs to be able to quickly adapt to changes.
Increased customer satisaction: Customers will receive a single
phone number that will work seamlessly across traditional handsets
and their computers/laptops.
Increased cost-eectiveness: Delivering a fawless Games
experience is the baseline. Doing it more cost eectively? Even better.
Avaya came orward
and was signiicantly
more committed to
partnership, more
committed to the spirit
o the Games and morecommitted to being
lexible in delivering the
solution...
Justin Webb, VP o Olympic Services, BellCanada
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From the Gartner Files:
Top 10 Tips to Prepare Your Networkfor Unified Communications andCollaboration
This documents details the steps required to ensure that appropriate
inrastructure is in place to support unied communications andcollaboration (UCC) rollouts. Lack o appropriate inrastructure will
result in user dissatisaction and, potentially, ailure o the overall UCC
initiative.
Key Findings
Most existing networks are ill-suited to support UCC, particularly
ad hoc multipoint videoconerencing. UCC applications introduce
new protocols and network trac patterns with increased
dependence on quality o service.
Required upgrades involve a broad range of systems, from
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) backbones to accessrouters, as well as the introduction o new components such as
WAN optimization controllers and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP
rewalls. For more advanced security requirements, consider
session border controllers.
As acceptance of UCC grows, dependence on the underlying
inrastructure will increase. Ongoing evaluation o the business
impact o inrastructure ailure must be done to ensure that an
appropriate level o investment is maintained to support these
systems.
Joe Skorupa:
Joe Skorupa is a research vice president in Gartner Research, where he is part o the Data Center Transormation
and Security Research unit. His research ocuses on maximizing application perormance via advanced networking
technologies, including Layer 4-7 switching, and WAN optimization. He also covers data center network convergenc
abric-based inrastructure and delivery o rich media, including video within the enterprise. In addition, Mr. Skorupa
advises vendors on product, market and partnership strategies. Through extensive collaboration, Mr. Skorupas
research extends to intersections between networking and adjacent research areas, including storage, servers and
data center optimization. The research covers topics including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), I/O virtualization,
and emerging data center architectures, such as cloud computing and abric-based computers.
Mr. Skorupa has more than 25 years o experience in enterprise, service provider and storage networking. He has hel
a variety o engineering, marketing and analyst roles at companies such as FORE Systems, Bytex, Motorola and RHK.
Debra Curtis:
Debra Curtis is a research vice president in the Gartner IT Operations Management group. She is responsible or the
research core topics o network management, event management, business service management and IT service
portolio management. She ocuses on best practices or IT operations management, improving IT management
process maturity and end-to-end IT service management.
Prior to joining Gartner, Ms. Curtis held product marketing and executive management positions at DeskTalk
Systems and AXON Networks, both vendors specializing in network perormance management. Ms. Curtis also
spent 15 years at Digital Equipment Corporation, holding positions in product marketing, marketing planning,
international marketing, sotware consulting and technical support.
Lawrence Orans:
Lawrence Orans is a research director in Gartners Research organization. His research ocuses on the integration o
security within internal networks, with a particular emphasis on network access control, VoIP and content ltering.
Prior to joining Gartner in 1997, Mr. Orans held systems engineering positions at IBM, 3Com and Bay Networks (via
Wellfeet Communications), where he worked with enterprises on designing and implementing secure network
inrastructures. In total, he has more than 20 years o experience in the industry.
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Investment in staff training and in new design and troubleshootingtools is required to ensure a successul design, deployment and
operation o UCC systems.
Recommendations
Involve the network and security teams early in UCC planning,
pilots and deployments.
Set proper expectations that during periods of peak demand some
services, particularly video-based services, may have to be limited
due to network bandwidth constraints.
UCC deployment can signicantly increase capital and operational
costs or networking and security, so include these additional costsin the overall return on investment (ROI) calculation or UCC.
ANALYSIS
Many organizations will begin initial deployments o enterprisewide
UCC capabilities in 2010. While much attention will be paid to Internet
Protocol (IP) telephony call managers, video, shared work spaces and
presence, most organizations will not devote adequate planning and
resources to the required network inrastructure upgrades. However,
without these upgrades end-user productivity and satisaction
regarding the UCC tools will not meet expectations.
Gartner believes that UCC deployment must be addressed in the
broader context o overall network re-engineering. UCC applicationschange network trac patterns rom hub and spoke to mesh as
branches communicate directly with one another. Trac loads
change rom non-real-time to latency and bandwidth-sensitive real-
time communications, including ad hoc multipoint videoconerencing.
Additionally, new protocols and servers are introduced into the
environment, complicating design and operations.
The impact o ad hoc high bandwidth services (such as point
to point and multipoint video) can negatively aect overall UCC
services. Advanced scheduling combined with call admission control
(denying new sessions when at capacity) can help. But it is critical
to set expectations that not all services will be available under any
conditions and then to train the users on how to all back to voice-onlycalls.
Over time, demand or rich collaboration with employees that are o
the corporate network or with business partners will develop. This
will drive an increase in Internet access bandwidth and will introduce
an additional set o interoperability and security concerns that are
beyond the scope o this note.
As with any IT investment, the level o investment must match the
impact o the system on the business. As UCC systems are an
emerging technology, the impact on the business may changeas end-user acceptance and dependency evolves. Ongoing risk
assessment and involvement o business leaders is critical to ensure
that the appropriate investments in inrastructure and stang are
maintained.
Assure UCC Perormance
UCC introduces new trac patterns and protocols to the network.
While the signaling trac tends to be many to one (endpoints to
limited number o SIP servers), the session trac will oten travel
directly between endpoints. As a result, a ull mesh quality o service
(QoS) implementation is required. Because many applications use
HTTP or HTTPS as their transport, the QoS mechanisms must include
deep packet examination to ensure that critical trac is protected.
Keep in mind that video consumes approximately 10 times the
bandwidth o a voice call. As UCC gains acceptance, its use will
increase and use patterns will emerge. To avoid an ever escalating
demand or more bandwidth, it will be necessary to monitor ongoing
use, working with teams that have regularly scheduled meetings
to alter the meeting times, or adjusting the available tools during
especially busy times.
1. I you havent already done so, install redundant WAN links
between critical sites to ensure a network outage does not disrupt
communications between these sites. Keep in mind that relatively
small sites may be critical to important projects. For these sitesthe redundant links may be provided by Internet virtual private
networks (VPNs), although the perormance o these links may be
less predictable.
2. Implement QoS enorcement in the edge routers to protect
critical SIP, voice over IP (VoIP) and video trac, as well as other
mission-critical trac. Many companies connect to small branch
oces via Internet VPNs, which provide best-eort transport
with unpredictable perormance. This may be inadequate or
UCC trac. I so, these links will have to be upgraded to MPLS
connections, which will urther increase the operational expense
or UCC.
3. Consider WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) that provide deep
packet examination to inspect and mark the trac. In some cases,
asymmetrical examination and enorcement may be adequate. In
other cases, symmetric implementations may be required. Keep
in mind that i any o the trac is encrypted by IPsec, the overall
eectiveness o the network may not be able to be guaranteed.
4. I bandwidth is scarce and expensive consider a combination o
the ollowing:
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1. Ofoad less critical trac (Web surng, le transers, e-mail)to an Internet VPN to preserve bandwidth on the QoS-enabled
network or perormance-critical UCC trac. This approach can
also provide some degree o resiliency should the primary link
ail.
2. Use advanced platorm application delivery controllers (AP
ADCs) and WOCs to ofoad busy links where more bandwidth
is not practical. AP ADCs can improve the perormance o
interactive applications by 50% and can improve the response
time or Microsot SharePoint by as much as 50% without
requiring an appliance in the remote oce. WOCs can reduce
response times by 50% to 90% and can reduce peak bandwidth
requirements or non-video/voice applications by as much as90%, although average improvements are typically closer to
50%.
In many cases, a hybrid approach will be the most cost-eective
approach with some sites served by AP ADCs while others require
a combination o AP ADCs and WOCs. I multipoint voice and video
calls are expected to be common, bandwidth upgrades will probably
be required. I edge QoS and ofoad prove inadequate you may
have to upgrade your MPLS services to include QoS support, which
can be expensive. This will also require additional trac engineering
work across the backbone. Be sure that the cost o this upgrade is
considered, i not explicitly included, in the overall budget or the UCC
implementation.
Adequately Size and Secure Your Inrastructure
UCC architectures are dierent rom traditional productivity
applications. Most activities depend on one set o servers to set up
communications and others to provide shared tools, and both sets
o devices represent potential perormance bottlenecks and single
points o ailure. End-user satisaction with UCC implementations is
directly linked to the availability and perormance o those systems.
5. Ensure that multiparty services such as shared whiteboard or
multipoint voice and video bridging have adequate capacity or
anticipated use. While raw server perormance is a component
o this requirement, network perormance can also aect overall
system perormance. Take care to ensure that servers have
adequate network bandwidth and that servers are located to
minimize latency between end users. This may require regional
servers. In cases where collaborators are distributed globally,
latency may be an ongoing issue. In these cases it is important to
set proper expectations during initial system rollout.
I at all possible, select UCC products that support the call admissicontrol concept, so that, or example, i a site can only support 20
video calls then the UCC system will block the 21st. It will then be
important to coordinate capacity management between the netwo
management systems and the UCC platorm.
6. Implement redundant servers (o ten as distributed redundant
pairs) with load balancing or all critical unctions. As users
come to depend upon UCC systems to perorm their everyday
activities, unplanned (and even planned) outages can result in
signicant disruptions to the business, loss o productivity and u
dissatisaction. O course, the investment in redundant systems
must match the economic impact o the outage. Running UCC
services as virtual machines can reduce the cost o redundancysharing replacement pools with other virtualized applications.
7. While attacks against unied communications systems have
been ew and ar between, UCC systems can be easily attacked
and rendered inoperable, particularly by insiders. The level o
protection or a UCC system should match its level o criticality. T
main risk to a UCC system is that it could be disabled by an attac
(or example, denial o service) on one o the UCC servers.
Most UCC systems are based on the SIP signaling protocol, and a
number o ree tools are available on the Internet to launch SIP-bas
attacks. Also, SIP vulnerabilities are being exposed at a aster rate
than with other signaling protocols, due in large part to the act thaopen source SIP implementations are widely available to researche
and attackers.
To mitigate these risks, protect the UCC servers with internal rewa
that provide stateul inspection o SIP (or whichever signaling
protocol is being used). Organizations that are more security
conscious may choose to complement the rewalls with an intrusio
prevention system that is capable o preventing signaling attacks o
implementing a session border controller (SBC).
Alternatively, SBCs can be used to reduce SIP-based denial o servi
(DoS) threats that originate rom within and outside an organization
and provide interoperability with various versions o SIP being used
by service providers and enterprises. The complementary unctions
session management and session border control improve enterpri
communications security, UCC application deployment, operationa
eciency and reliability.
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Match Your Tools and Training to the New Environment
UCC trac will share the network with existing trac, making
monitoring and troubleshooting more dicult and rapid problem
resolution more important.
8. Consider general purpose network perormance monitoring
tools, rather than point products that can only monitor UCC trac.
General purpose network monitoring tools are able to monitor
UCC trac, but will evaluate it relative to the rest o the business
applications that are also using the network bandwidth. UCC
should be managed in the context o the broader enterprise
network, not treated as a separate stovepipe. Point products only
look at UCC perormance, whereas general purpose tools monitorthe quality o service or all network trac, not just UCC. Beore
adding UCC trac to the data network, its vital to get a baseline o
current network service levels and business application transaction
perormance, in order to be able to report any change in service
quality ater the UCC deployment.
9. Employ network emulation, simulation and modeling tools to
determine i network latency and bandwidth limitations will
negatively impact the end user perception o UCC applications. A
network assessment should be perormed not only to determine
whether UCC trac can be carried with adequate service
quality, but also to predict the impact o UCC trac on business
applications that already run on the network.
As part o the capacity planning process, these tools can beused to help ensure optimal network design to support UCC and
current business applications, as well as to reliably predict uture
perormance based on an understanding o business demands,
including additional users and new applications. Follow the planning
process with a limited scale pilot to ensure assumptions are valid and
to amiliarize the team with the new products and procedures.
10. Upgrade network engineering and operations sta tools and
training. UCC is an implementation o multiple products rom
multiple vendors. I the engineering and operations sta is
unable to adequately design, deploy, operate and support the
UCC environment, the project will quickly be seen as a ailure
by end users and top management. The introduction o SIP andother new protocols and technologies into the network, as well
as the introduction o new trac patterns and loads, may require
additional sta training. New design and troubleshooting tools
may also be required, each with their own training requirements.
Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00201607, Joe Skorupa, Debra Curtis,
Lawrence Orans, 6 July 2010
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